SEE: Firefighters fight forest fires in Vila Real, northern Portugal
Mobile phones in Portugal have earned a text message warning about the excessive threat of wildfires as the country prepares for its third summer heatwave.
The country has entered a state of alert, and temperatures are expected to exceed 38°C (100. 4°F) and strong winds are expected in the coming days.
The messages warned other people in rural areas not to start any kind of fire.
The government has also limited itself to forests and banned the use of machinery to save sparks.
The state of alarm went into effect from Sunday and will last until Tuesday.
Some 92,000 hectares of land have already burned this year, according to government estimates, with heat waves and drought generating tinder situations.
In the Serra da Estrela region alone, fires in weeks have destroyed more than 28,000 hectares, or more than 25% of its total area.
On Saturday, fires in Ourem and Leiria, north of the capital Lisbon, were sparked after causing thousands of pounds of injuries and disrupting trains for more than six hours on Friday.
In neighboring Spain, a forest fire in the eastern province of Valencia went out and became one of the largest fires of the year in the country. On Friday, as it entered its fifth day, 35 planes were sent to control it. .
Spain has been hit harder than any other European country by forest fires this year, according to the European Commission’s Copernicus Earth programme. This year, forest fires in Spain burned 4 times more land than in the last decade.
As of early August, there have been 43 giant wildfires, affecting at least 500 hectares (1,235 acres), in the Mediterranean country, above the average of recent years.
The European Forest Fire Information System estimates that Spain has burned 284,764 hectares (704,000 acres) this year, 4 times more than the average since records began in 2006.
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