Portugal has appealed for EU aid to combat forest fires, which are ravaging parts of the country

Portugal has appealed for EU aid to combat forest fires, which are ravaging parts of the country. So far Greece has offered to send two planes. Strong winds and a heatwave have proved to be a devastating combination in several areas, notably near Faro in the southern tourist region of Algarve. Further north, the districts of Porto and Vila Real have also been hit hard. Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed, backed by water trucks and helicopters. Last summer huge fires destroyed 13 percent of the country's forests at a cost of more than a billion euros. Portugal is not the only country to be affected. At the weekend, blazes in southern France destroyed around 3,000 hectares of land and prompted the evacuation of 2,000 people. In Corsica, emergency workers are struggling to contain a fire at Calenzana in the north of the island. Meanwhile in Spain, firefighters are battling five blazes in the north-western province of Orense. The country's other main hotspot is Huelva in the south, where two fires declared last night are still out of control.