The worst wildfires in 20 years raged across central Portugal, killing at least nine people, news reports said Sunday.

A woman uses a bucket to fight a fire in a house in the village of Torre, central Portugal, Aug. 2, 2003, after a forest fire reached the village and burnt down six houses. On Aug. 3 2003, dozens of wildfires are still raging across Portugal fuelled by the dry hot weather conditions. [AP]

The blazes killed two people inside their car in the central Portuguese region of Santarem on Saturday. One man died in the Portalegre region as he tried to escape the blazes in his combine.

Also, a firefighter deployed in Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo died in a car crash.

The fatalities follow the fire-related deaths of two elderly people earlier in the week.

Another three deaths were reported Sunday evening by Portugal's national news service, Lusa, though details were not immediately available.

On Sunday, about 3,000 firefighters, 400 soldiers and 700 vehicles battled the blazes, which are raging across the central and northern regions of Castelo Branco, Santarem, Portalegre and Leiria. Smaller fires burned in many regions across the country.

One of the main factors behind the fires are high temperatures, with temperatures hovering at about 104 during the last few days.

The fires have destroyed homes in remote villages and knocked out water, electricity and phone service supplies in rural areas.

Some roads and highways also have been cut off by flames and smoke.

On Saturday, Italy sent two firefighting planes to help extinguish the blazes. The Moroccan government also responded to the Portuguese government's call for help by sending planes.

A fire near Castelo Branco, a region that has been burning since late last week, already has devastated about 28,400 acres of pine forest.

In neighboring Spain, firefighters braced themselves as winds blowing from the west threatened to spread the worst of the fires across the borders, news reports said.

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