LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Fire crews called in military reinforcements and requested two water-dumping aircraft from Spain on Friday to help contain a new spate of wildfires fueled by a surge in temperatures and gusting winds.
More than 3,000 firefighters were placed on standby after forecasts of a rise in temperature.
Wildfires during an August heat wave burned more than 815,000 acres, almost double the previous record for an entire year, and killed 18 people.
Antonio Gualdino, spokesman for the National Fire Coordination Center, said about 150 soldiers and two Spanish firefighting planes were expected to arrive in the Monchique range of hills in southern Portugal where a fire was out of control.
Almost 300 firefighters with 85 vehicles, two planes and two helicopters were unable to contain the blaze overnight, Gualdino said by phone.
No people were in danger, he said, though a few dozen elderly people were evacuated overnight from isolated villages as a precaution.
Gualdino said crews expected to contain another fire at Mafra, about 18 miles north of Lisbon, by the end of the day.
That blaze cast thick clouds of smoke as far as the capital overnight.
