Temperatures are expected to rise to up to 38 degrees over the next few days, while the wind blows hard, reports BBC.
Anyone living in sparsely populated areas is warned against lighting any kind of fire, and the government has banned the use of machinery to avoid sparks. People’s access to forests has also been restricted.
The warning came into effect at midnight on Sunday night and is valid until Tuesday. About 92,000 hectares have already burned this year due to drought and extreme temperatures, according to government estimates.
Over the weekend, forest fires in Ourém and Leiria, north of the capital Lisbon, have been brought under control.
In the province of Valencia in neighboring Spain, the forest fire in the area of Bejís is under control after raging for a week, the authorities said on Saturday according to AFP. The fire forced a train to stop on Tuesday, with the result that several passengers were injured when they fled the train.
Spain has been hit harder than any other country in Europe by fires this year, according to the EU’s environmental monitoring program Copernicus. Close to 285,000 hectares have burned – four times more than an average year since measurements began in 2006.