respitePenacova, Oct 18 (AFP) Overnight rain and calmer windshave helped firefighters tame a spate of deadly wildfires thatbroke out over the weekend, devouring homes and killing 41people in Portugal and another four in northern Spain.
Portugal's civil protection agency said Tuesday that the15 biggest fires, which had raged through the centre and thenorth of the country, had been brought under control, but thatthe death toll had risen.
"We've gone from 37 dead to 41," civil protection agencyspokeswoman Patricia Gaspar told AFP.
As the country began three days of mourning for thevictims, the agency said 71 people had been injured in thefires, 16 of them seriously. And one person was still missing.
Among the dead was a one-month-old baby.
"Most of the victims were killed in their cars, but wealso found them inside their houses," said Jose CarlosAlexandrino, mayor of Oliveira do Hospital near Coimbra,speaking to broadcaster RTP.
"The whole city looked like a ball of fire, surrounded byflames on all sides."Portugal's conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousacalled on the socialist government to "bear all theconsequences of this tragedy".
"These more than a hundred deaths will never leave mymind, it's a terrible weight on my conscience," he said.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Monday reaffirmed hispledge to prevent new tragedies by carrying out "fundamentalreforms" in forest management and firefighting.
Across the border in Galicia, Spain's westernmostprovince which flanks northern Portugal, the number of deadrose to four from fires which also broke out on Sunday andwere stoked by warm winds as Hurricane Ophelia passed theIberian Peninsula.
But by Tuesday, officials said they had lowered the alertlevel after early-morning rain and calmer winds halted theprogression of the flames.
It is the second time in four months that Portugal hasbeen hit by deadly wildfires after huge blazes in June killed64 people, the worst fires in the country's history.
"We went through absolute hell, it was horrible. Therewas fire everywhere," a resident of the central town ofPenacova told RTP television.
Further north, villagers from the Vouzela area spoke ofhow fast the fire spread.
"Everything happened in 45 minutes, the fire came to thefoot of the village and spread at an incredible rate,"resident Jose Morais told AFP.
"I had never seen anything like that before. It felt likethe end of the world. Everyone fled".
Despite the rain, the civil protection agency said thataround 3,000 firefighters remained deployed to tackle anyresumption of the blaze, but that there had been no majoractive fires burning since dawn.(AFP)AMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.