In a weekend of savage wildfires, a rare and terrifying phenomenon was captured on film near Arganil, Coimbra, when a fire devil was created in the blazing countryside.
The whirlwind of fire, called a fire devil or fire whirl, generated wind speeds of over 100mph, see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ecxDbWNAw
The rare event is caused when dust and flames are caught by the wind, spiralling around a core of ash which behaves like a flaming tornado.
The extremely rare sight was captured by a tvi film crew on Saturday evening.
More than 1,300 firefighters were still in action on Sunday, tackling six 'significant' fires in central and northern Portugal.
The largest was in the municipality of Pampilhosa da Serra, in Coimbra district, where 570 firefighters and 170 vehicles were aided by three aircraft, dumping water and retardant.
The fire, which had began on Friday night, had six active fronts and forced the closure of three main roads and the evacuation of six villages.
The Secretary of State for Internal Administration, Jorge Gomes, visited the affected area on Saturday and said that, although he has no way to prove it, he reckoned that several of the weekend’s fires were started deliberately.
A fire in the municipality of Mortágua, north of Coimbra, drew 300 firefighters to control the two active fronts.
In the town of Alvaiázere, in the center of Portugal, 285 firefighters were deployed to fight a fire that began on Saturday afternoon.
The other three significant fires, were in the municipalities of Bragança (north), Ribeira de Pena (north) and Vila Nova de Paiva (centre).
In a village in Guarda, the charred body of a 73-year-old man was discovered on Monday morning during clean-up and monitoring operations. He may well have set a fire to clear farm land and was overtaken by flames when the blaze became uncontrollable.
In June this year, 64 people died and hundreds were injured a fire that started in Pedrógão Grande.
The Civil Protection Agency said that on one day in August, there were 268 separate fires.
On Monday evening, there were three ‘significant’ fires and a further ten active fires reported on https://fogos.pt/