A Portuguese volunteer firefighter died Monday (September 7) while fighting a blaze in the center of the country, plagued by forest fires that mobilized a total of more than a thousand firefighters, the ministry said. Interior.
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The firefighter was killed while trying to overcome a blaze that broke out in Oliveira de Frades, in the Viseu region, which mobilized more than 300 men on Monday afternoon.
He was "
a little away from his colleagues
" before "
being reported missing for a few hours
" then "
found dead asphyxiated
", told local media the commander of the fire department of Oliveira de Frades, Fernando Farreca.
The firefighter who died on Monday is the fifth to be killed this summer in Portugal.
At the beginning of August, the pilot of a water bomber plane had perished in the crash his aircraft in Spain while fighting a fire on the northern border of Portugal.
Due to "
adverse weather conditions
", marked by temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius by regions, civil protection had placed its device on alert until Tuesday evening.
The country experienced in 2017 its most tragic year in terms of forest fires, which then killed around 100 people.