Portugal firefighters control wildfires, but warn of strong winds

Portuguese firefighters were cautiously optimistic Monday that they have largely controlled a massive wildfire in a central region where dozens of people were killed in huge blazes in 2017, but warned that strong winds could cause the remaining flames to spread.

Some 1,200 firefighters backed by five water-dropping planes were deployed to fight the blazes in the heavily forested Castelo Branco region, 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of the capital Lisbon, the civil protection force said.

The wildfires have been "90 per cent controlled" but winds were expected to pick up in the afternoon, with gusts of up to 35 kilometres per hour expected which could fan the flames and cause them to spread, the force's spokesman Pedro Nunes told a news conference in the central town of Serta.

"These are complex conditions to fight fires. We are going to have a complicated day. The wind has been the great motor of this fire," he said, adding the fire is still active "mainly in hard to reach ...