Firefighters quell most of Portugal's worst wildfires, fight still on

A helicopter drops water on a terrain during a wildfire in Castro Daire, Portugal, September 19, 2024. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes

VIZEU DISTRICT, Portugal (Reuters) -Firefighters tackling deadly wildfires in central and northern Portugal had doused the flames in the Aveiro district, one of the worst-hit, as of Thursday, and were focusing on eight large blazes still raging elsewhere.

After five days of ravaging tens of thousands of hectares of forest and farmland, destroying houses and claiming seven lives, the fires in Oliveira de Azemeis, Albergaria-a-Velha and Sever da Vouga, in the northwestern district of Aveiro, were no longer listed as active on the civil protection service's fires portal.