Portugal has declared three days of mourning for the 62 victims of one of the country’s deadliest forest fi res. Four children are among the victims, many of whom were found dead inside their cars as they tried to fl ee the central forested region of Pedrógão Grande. Hundreds of fi refi ghters continued to tackle the blaze on several fronts. Prime Minister Antonio Costa called it “the greatest tragedy we have seen in recent years in terms of forest fi res”. He said it was thought to have been sparked by a lightning strike. Four fi refi ghters were among the 54 people injured in the fi re, which was raging in several parts of a mountainous area some 200km north-east of the capital Lisbon. Th ere are fears the death toll could rise, as a number of people are still missing.
Th e period of national mourning ends on Tuesday. Emergency service workers were battling 156 fi res across the country on Sunday, Prime Minister Costa said, adding that most of the victims had died in just one of them. Secretary of State for the Interior Jorge Gomes said that most had died from smoke inhalation and burns, while two were killed in a road accident related to the fi res. Th irty bodies were found inside cars, with another 17 next to the vehicles, on one road leading on to the IC8 motorway. Another 11 died in a village next to the motorway. Th e fi res began on Saturday during an intense heatwave and rainless thunderstorms, with temperatures of more than 40C (104F) in some areas. Police say lightning striking a tree may have caused the fi re. “Th is is a region that has had fi res because of its forests, but we cannot remember a tragedy of these proportions,” Valdemar Alves, the mayor of Pedrógão Grande, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press agency. “I am completely stunned by the number of deaths
