Fernando Lourenco, 71. his wife and sister were asleep in their home in western Portugal when the flames engulfed the hillsides and descended into the village, The retirees never woke up.

"I was at one end of the village battling the flames and in two minutes the wall of fire had already reached the other side," said Ricardo Lopes. a 37-year-old teacher, his eyes red from the fumes and fatigue.

He had arrived at Vila Nova de Ventosa nestled between two hills, where his parents live, around the same time as the fierce blaze fanned by strong wind gusts.

It was shortly after midnight.

"There was a hurricane of flames, there's no words to describe it," said villager Jose Constantino.

Another local resident likened the spreading fire to a volcano. "I was sleeping and all of a sudden, I was awakened by an enormous noise, you could say it was like a volcano which took up everything in its path," said Celestino Ribeiro, among those who escaped the catastrophe.

Lourenco, his wife Laurinda, 65, and his sister Arminda, 76, who were sound asleep, never had a chance.

"The fire came from all sides, it was chaos, and unfortunately their house was one of the first ones to be touched by the flames. They never had the time to escape," explained Maria Idalina, a retired housekeeper.

At least 36 people have been killed by Portugal's fires.

Despite their efforts, the villagers could not stop the flames from destroying stone houses and devouring barns, livestock and crops.

"When the flames arrived in the streets, we were powerless, there was nothing you could do for those who had remained trapped in their homes, " said Lopes.

"For four hours we were alone, without help from firefighters, fortunately rescuers arrived because we didn't have any more water."

Under a cloud of smoke hiding the sun, Lopes and other residents now make trips by car to neighbouring areas to replenish the supply of water.

Sitting with his crutches near the village's little chapel, Jose Ribeiro , 90, has lived here all his life.

"We've already had several fires including a big one in 2000, but it never reached the village," he said.

If it weren't for his fellow villagers, "doing what they could," he added, "it would have been even more tragic."

Nine killed in Spain, Portugal as wildfires fanned by hurricane
Madrid (AFP) Oct 16, 2017 - Six people have been killed in Portugal as the country was hit by a record number of forest fires, and three more have died in Spain where blazes sparked by arsonists have been fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Ophelia.

In Portugal, Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced a state of public calamity, as 3,700 firefighters battled 26 major fires stretching across the centre and north of the country.

The deaths, confirmed by Portugal's national civil protection agency, came four months after 64 people were killed and more than 250 injured on June 17, in the deadliest fire in the country's history.

In addition to the six dead, some 25 people had been injured, civil protection agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said, with three motorways, including one linking Lisbon and Porto, closed.

The recent fires have been caused by "higher than average temperatures for the season and the cumulative effect of drought, which has been felt since the start of the year", she said.

In Spain, authorities were blaming arson for some 17 fires which have caused three deaths.

"They are absolutely intentional fires, premeditated, caused by people who know what they are doing," the head of the regional government, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said.

Fifteen separate wildfires which posed a risk to built up areas were raging across the region of Galicia, he said.

The flames were being fanned by wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres (55 miles) per hour as Hurricane Ophelia moved north off the coast of Spain towards Ireland, he told private broadcaster La Sexta.

"The situation is critical," he said.

- Unprecedented situation -

Feijoo said "thousands" of firefighters, soldiers and locals were battling the blazes.

"We have not had a situation like this in the past decade. We have never deployed so many means at this time of the year," he said.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is from Galicia, expressed his condolences to the victims in a Twitter message.

Five wildfires were raging near Vigo, Galicia's biggest city, forcing the evacuation of a shopping mall and a PSA Peugeot Citroen factory on the outskirts of the city.

The flames had reached O Castro, a large hilltop park in the heart of Vigo with sweeping views of the city's estuary, Spanish public television station TVE reported.

Images broadcast on Spanish TV showed local residents, their mouths and noses covered with handkerchiefs, battling the flames with buckets and pans of water.

The city of around 300,000 residents has opened up two sports centres and booked rooms in three hotels for people who were forced to evacuate their homes.

At least 10 schools cancelled classes on Monday in Vigo because of the flames, local officials said.

Spanish state-owned rail operator Renfe said it had cancelled a train linking Vigo to Barcelona because of the wildfires.

Several roads in Galicia were closed because of the flames, local officials said.

The national weather office is forecasting rain and cooler temperatures in Galicia beginning early on Monday which officials hope will help put out the flames.

Meteorologists say Ophelia is the most powerful hurricane recorded so far east in the Atlantic and the first since 1939 to travel so far north.

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Flames turn Coffey Park to ashes
Santa Rosa, United States (AFP) Oct 11, 2017
Only chimneys remain. Eerily, they seem almost intact, rising from a smoldering landscape on Tuesday in what was left of a Coffey Park neighborhood obliterated by a fast-moving inferno. Barbara Baird and her daughter, Krysti Campbell, somberly sift through ashes of what long was their home. In a fate shared by neighbors in their community in the Wine Country town of Santa Rosa, flame ... read more

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