More than 700 forest fires occurred last weekend, 269 of which were on Sunday, according to statistics from the National Authority for Civil Protection (ANPC).
The data from the ANPC shows that there was a growing tendency throughout the three-day weekend period. On Friday, 19 fires were registered, followed by 244 on Saturday and then the distrurbing number of 269 on Sunday.
The last day of the weekend saw 6,181 firemen committed to fire fighting across the country, supported by 1,619 vehicles.
Still, it seems the forest fire problem is less disastrous compared to 2012.
A recent report showed that forest fires have destroyed nearly 18,000 acres this year up until the end of July, which is about a quarter of the area during the same period in 2012.
Another similar document from the nature and forest conservation institute (ICNF) revealed that during the first seven months of the year, 6,950 forest fires were registered, around half of the number for the same period last year when 13,142 were registered.
At the time of going to press, there was one significant forest fire being fought in Penafiel, in the district of Porto.
