Portugal faced similar fires last summer

Three important highways were closed, including part of the main road between Lisbon and second city Oporto.

Residents tried to beat back the flames nearing their homes with the branches of trees and buckets of water.

Authorities said the fires, which sprung up in the early hours of Friday, may have been started deliberately.

The fires took hold in the parched countryside as Portugal endured its worst drought in decades.

'Getting controlled'

Brush fires have already destroyed more than three times the average annual loss in the first six months of this year.

Five water-dropping aircraft were deployed to the biggest blaze near Albergaria-a-Velha, about 250km (155 miles) north of Lisbon.

"Firefighters have the fire in hand - it is getting controlled," the mayor of Albergaria-a-Velha, Joao Agostinho, said.

"We could have had a catastrophe here," he added.

Further north, near Oporto, firefighters were battling about 30 fires of various sizes, the AFP news agency reported.