A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire in Caramulo, central Portugal on August 29, 2013. Five Portuguese mountain villages were evacuated overnight as forest fires intensified in the country’s north and centre, officials said today. As many as 1,400 firefighters were dispatched Thursday to tackle the blaze in the mountains and another raging further north in the national park of Alvao, where 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of pine forest have already been destroyed, according to the local mayor. AFP PHOTO / PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA
PORTUGAL-FIRE-ENVIRONMENT
