The China Mail - Portugal counts the cost of its biggest ever forest fire

The blaze was only brought under control on Sunday after raging for 11 days and having burned 64,451 hectares (160,000 acres), National Civil Protection Authority spokesman Commander Telmo Ferreira told AFP.

That made it the largest fire ever recorded in Portugal, according to the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF). The previous biggest was 53,000 hectares devastated by a forest fire in October 2017.

The blaze covered seven municipalities in Coimbra, Guarda, and Castelo Branco districts and was caused by lightning strikes, officials said.

Ferreira said authorities still had nearly 1,000 firefighters and 300 vehicles on "surveillance operations" Monday though the numbers were expected to be gradually reduced.

Monday brought some respite as the civil protection system recorded no fresh outbreaks from a summer which has seen Portugal and neighbouring Spain suffer a slew of fires.

Since July, forest fires have killed four people in Portugal, destroyed homes and crops, and ravaged some 278,000 hectares, according to European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) data. Four people have also died in the most recent firest in Spain.

Portugal's worst year was in 2017, when more than 563,000 hectares were burned in wildfires that killed 119 people, according to EFFIS records.

The government has announced a number of emergency measures to help affected areas, including funding for the reconstruction of destroyed homes and aid for farmers.

The Iberian Peninsula has been severely affected by climate change, which is causing longer and more intense heatwaves, according to experts.

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