CNN.com - Toll grows as fires sweep Portugal - Aug 23, 2005: "(CNN) -- Two more people have died in the two dozen wildfires sweeping Portugal despite the arrival in the country of international firefighting assistance, raising the overall toll to 15, officials said.
The latest fatalities reported Tuesday included an 88-year-old woman, who fled her home near Ourem in central Portugal last Thursday trying to escape the flames.
Her charred body was found Monday, Patricia Gaspar of Portugal's National Fire Coordination Center, told CNN.
Also on Monday, a 40-year-old man who was helping to fight fires near his northern village of Vila Nova de Poiares, was killed when a firefighting truck ran over him, police said.
Most of the 15 fatalities in the forest fires have been firefighters, as Portugal, like neighboring Spain, suffers from its worst drought in decades. Low humidity, high temperatures and high winds, have allowed the fires to spread rapidly."
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