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Updated 8.24pm
PORTUGAL’S PRIME MINSISTER led calls today to find out why a highway now dubbed the “road of death” — where most of the 64 victims of a giant forest fire perished — had not been blocked off, as questions mounted over the disaster management response.
More than 1,000 firefighters were still battling to control the flames which broke out in the central Pedrogao Grande region at the weekend and spread at breakneck speed to neighbouring areas.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa sought “immediate explanations” why the national 236 highway “had not been closed to traffic” and why it had been signalled by gendarmes as an alternative route after a nearby road had been sealed off, according to the Lusa national news agency.
Forty-seven of the 64 forest fire victims died on the N236 which has been branded the “road of death” or the “road of hell” by the local media.
Thirty of them burned to death in their cars, trapped by the flames.
False reports
Authorities had earlier said that a firefighting plane had crashed attempting to extinguish fires in the region.
An official with Portugal’s Air Accident Office said a Canadair water-dropping plane has crashed in central Portugal while fighting the wildfires. Maria Jose Andre told The Associated Press that the Civil Protection Agency, which is overseeing firefighting operations, informed her office that the plane had crashed.
Her office immediately sent a crash investigation team to the area but that she had no details about the plane, its crew or where the crash happened, she said.
Officials with the Portuguese government and the Civil Protection Agency said they could not confirm the crash.
“We are investigating if (the reports) are true,” Secretary of State for the Interior Jorge Gomes said.
Civil Protection Agency spokesman Fausto Coutinho says authorities had received reports of a plane crash near where wildfires are raging and dispatched a helicopter to check.
‘Very fast and very explosive’
Officials said the blaze was mostly contained, though still burning fiercely.
Some firefighting resources were being diverted to Gois, about 20 kilometers from Pedrogao Grande, where almost 800 firefighters and four planes were battling the flames. Commander Vitor Vaz Pinto told reporters said the Gois wildfire was “very fast and very explosive” and had forced the evacuation of 11 hill villages.
Temperatures forecast to reach 43 degrees Celsius, gusting winds and bone-dry woodland were fueling the blazes, Vaz Pinto said.
With reporting from AFP
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Fecking hate cancer.
If you can dodge cancer you can dodge a dodgeball
Maybe spending too much time with Fran Stalinovskovichdavidovitchsky, the most dangerous women on the planet
Good news. I like him. His movies make me and the kids laugh.
A PSA (prostate specific antigen) test is a simple blood test. All men over the age of 50 should have one regularly. They can do great things now if they get it early enough. Well done Mr Stiller.
@Deborah Behan: So you don’t need a finger up your bum anymore? Happy days.
Deborah the problem with PSA testing is that normal levels don’t always exclude cancer and elevated levels don’t always mean cancer. This is highlighted in the article. Thus it is not conclusive if all men should be screened because it leads to a lot of testing, some of which is invasive, and many of these tests will be completed on people that don’t turn out to have prostate cancer. Hence the best advice is included in the article, ie from age 50 discuss with doctor. This is all complicated by the fact that prostrate cancer is quite common, and in many cases slow growing. Indeed most men with prorate cancer do not die from it.
Never rated him much as an actor but he’s to be commended for fighting this and making it public.
Always liked his movies a lot. Great news
Get that finger up yer bum early gents!
@Barton Hobbes: A doctors or E.T’s. as the blood test would be more reliable?
I heard that in men that the risk of getting this cancer is the same as your age, so someone 31 has a 31% chance of getting it and a man of 62 has a 62% chance of getting it, I do not know if this is 100% fact but interesting. It is believed taking a daily amount of zinc can help prevent this cancer but another one to look into?
What
“I heard that…”
“It is believed…”
Excellent scientific research!
Apparently pleasuring yourself prevents male prostate cancer.
I wonder was this caused by the time he zipped up his pants the wrong way?
I like him! Check out ‘Permanent Midnight’
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