Firefighting aircraft from Italy and Germany were due to arrive in Portugal today after the Lisbon government appealed for help to fight raging forest fires.
A firefighting helicopter drops water on a forest fire raging near Pampilhosa da Serra yesterday
Yesterday two water tank planes from France and one from Spain arrived in Portugal to help fight more than 60 wildfires in the country.
A third of these were burning in the northern districts of Viseu and Viana do Castelo. A Canadair aircraft from Italy and three helicopters from Germany with 25 anti-fire specialists aboard were expected to arrive in the country to add to the international task force.
On Saturday, Portugal asked the European Union for help in fighting massive wildfires as the Interior ministry admitted it could no longer cope with dozens of blazes burning through forests and farmland without external help.
Portugal's worst drought in years has helped the flames spread.
So far, 11 firefighters and four civilians have been killed in this year's fires, and 50 houses have been destroyed.
The most serious fire was in the Pampilhosa da Serra region, in the district of Coimbra, 122 miles north of Lisbon.
Although the fire had seemingly been extinguished last Wednesday after burning for five days, it flared up again on Friday, forcing several villages to be evacuated.
So far, 74,130 acres of the region's 96,369 acres have been destroyed, and 200 firefighters, 74 fire trucks and three firefighting planes and helicopters are battling the flames in the area.
Fires were also ablaze in the districts of Aveiro, Braga, Braganca, Coimbra, Leiria, Porto, Santarem, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real and Viseu.