Officials in Portugal said 33 people were injured as wildfires continued to burn across the country on Monday, according to BBC News.
Authorities requested two water-bombing planes as winds from the Atlantic Ocean revived the fires, even though nearly 1,000 firefighters were already working on the major response.
"During the morning it was practically controlled but weather conditions did not allow consolidation of the situation," Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.
Several villages were evacuated in order to limit any possible casualties in a mountainous area of the country 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Lisbon.
Civil Protection said the fires were 90 percent under control after first breaking out on Saturday, but said the remaining blazes still needed "a lot of attention" since winds could fan the flames in dry conditions.
Fernando Almeida told the news agency AFP in the village of Casais de Sao Bento: "Yesterday we thought we were done, it was completely extinguished, then suddenly the fire resumes with this wind, we can't believe it."
Civil Protection commander Pedro Nunes said local authorities were trying to maintain calm.
"We have the capacity to respond (to the wildfire), both terrestrial and aerial because the whole focus is on this operation," Nunes said.
The interior ministry said eight firefighters and 12 civilians were injured in the Castelo Branco region on Sunday.
One badly burned civilian was evacuated by helicopter to the capital Lisbon.
The largest "active" fire was in the municipality of Vila de Rei, which had more than 800 firefighters responding to the incident with 245 vehicles, including bulldozers, planes, and helicopters.
Interior Minister Eduardo Cabrita said an investigation was also underway to determine the origin of the fire.
"There's something strange. How is it that five such large fires broke out in areas that are so close to each other?" said Cabrita.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed his "solidarity with the hundreds fighting the scourge of the fires".
-WN.com, Maureen Foody