Wildfire injures 8, damages buildings on Madeira

A wildfire encroached upon a suburb of the main city of the Portuguese island of Madeira Friday, injuring eight people, dpa quoted civil protection authorities and a hospital representative as saying. Flames had reached barns on the outskirts of Monte, a summer refuge for many residents of Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese Atlantic outpost. Eight people were treated for slight injuries, while several were evacuated. High temperatures and winds were hampering the firefighting effort, firefighter commander Nelson Bettencourt said. Madeira is the main island in an archipelago of the same name, located about 600 kilometres off North Africa. Several fires were also raging in continental Portugal. Blazes in the northern districts of Guarda and Porto were reported to be under control. A firefighter was killed Thursday when he got cut off from his colleagues and was surrounded by flames in Covilha, eastern Portugal. Pedro Miguel Jesus Rodrigues became the 104th firefighter to be killed when combating wildfires since 1980.