Nearly 1,500 firefighters backed by 14 water-dropping aircraft, including a plane sent from Spain in response to an appeal from Lisbon, were involved in the battle against the flames, the civil protection agency said.

Over 200 firefighters and four aircraft were at the scene of the largest blaze just outside of the port city of Figueira da Foz, some 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Lisbon.

Scorching temperatures and strong winds were helping the wildfire spread but firefighters said the aircraft were helping them get the upper hand.

Eighteen people were treated overnight for smoke inhalation because of another fire in a forest near the central town of Viseu, local officials said.

Fires were also burning near the cities of Braga, Braganca, Castelo Branco, Leiria and Oporto.

The wildfires erupted across central and northern Portugal on Saturday as temperatures soared above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout much of the thick-wooded interior of the country.

Seven of Portugal's 18 administrative districts face a "maximum" risk of wildfires on Monday while most of the rest face a "very high" risk because of the unseasonally high temperatures, according to the agriculture ministry.

Wildfires have destroyed just over 286,000 hectares (706,000 acres) of forest and agricultural land so far this year in Portugal, which is facing its worst drought since the 1940s.

The blazes, which reached their worst in July and August, have killed at least 15 people, most of them firefighters, and destroyed more than 100 homes.

This is Portugal's worst year for fires since 2003, when 20 people were killed and 425,000 hectares of forest and scrubland were destroyed.

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