In Portugal, a fire broke out in the district of Mafra, north of Lisbon, while in France at least 4 firefighters were seriously injured and motorways were closed.
Some 400 fire fighters were mobilized to fight the fire about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Lisbon.
Residents tried to curb the spread of the flames by watering their gardens, as the flames also swept through nearby forests, according to television footage.
A nursing home housing 30 other people has been evacuated as a precaution, Commander Paulo Santos of the Civil Protection Authority told Radio Renascenca.
Elsewhere, primary outbreaks have broken out in northern and central Portugal, requiring more than 1,000 firefighters.
In the middle of Ourem, a river beach was also evicted as a precaution, while two other people inhaled smoke, according to an emergency official quoted by the Lusa agency.
Parts of northern and central Portugal were placed on alert this weekend for “sharp temperature increases” to more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) that are expected to last through at least Tuesday, according to the meteorological institute.
Experts blame the weather for rising temperatures and warn that the worst is yet to come.
Portugal, which remains traumatized by the fatal fires of 2017 that killed more than a hundred people, also hit a series of fires in early July stoked by scorching temperatures.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 58,000 hectares (143,000 acres) have been burned, according to the latest data, still provisional, from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF).
New fires, meanwhile, broke out on Sunday in southeastern France, with 350 hectares burning in the Gard where a firefighter was seriously injured, and 35 hectares near Marseille affected, causing partial road closures.
“Four firefighters are injured,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in a tweet about the fire that broke out around 3:00 p. m. in a pine forest in the municipality of Aubais, south of Nîmes.
One of them “seriously injured” and had to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital in Montpellier for burns on his hands and face.
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