Wildfires

Wildfires - California, USA

A massive, out-of-control Northern California wildfire that destroyed 68 homes and forced thousands to flee has become the fifth largest in state history, officials said on Sunday, as crews battled high temperatures and strong winds.

The Mendocino Complex Fire, made up of two separate conflagrations that merged near Ukiah, north of Sacramento, exploded by 25 percent overnight and had blackened nearly 400 square miles as of Sunday morning, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The Mendocino Complex Fire has charred more than 254,000 acres, making it the fifth largest blaze in California's history.

Wildfires - Portugal

Temperatures in Portugal, at the crest of a European heat wave, began to ease from near record levels on Sunday, but a forest fire raged for a third day in the south, battled by 800 firefighters and 12 aircraft. Flames have consumed more than 1000 hectares of forest, in the hilly Monchique area in the southern Algarve region popular with tourists.