FRANCE: Some 700 firefighters were still battling forest fires yesterday in La Motte, near France's Côte d'Azur, as a local man admitted committing arson "out of spite".
Fires fuelled by a heat wave claimed a victim in Portugal yesterday, where authorities said a 60-year-old man was engulfed by flames near the town of Fundao, 230km north-east of Lisbon.
More than 500 firefighters and 300 soldiers battled for the third day to contain the latest in a wave of forest fires in central Portugal while scores of Croatian firefighters struggled to contain blazes along the Adriatic coast.
Most of the fires that have ravaged the hills along France's picture-postcard Riviera coast stopped spreading as winds eased, but dark smoke billowed up from woodland where firemen were working to bring several other blazes under control.
Fire-fighting aircraft bombarded the scorched hills with water and exhausted firemen sprayed brush and trees to push back the flames that have destroyed a large swath of the Mediterranean resort region between Cannes and Toulon.
"The big fire in La Motte is still burning. We have a decent-sized team there - 700 men, four planes and three helicopters," said Mr Florian Denan, spokesman for the fire-fighters in the Var region.
A fourth helicopter was coming from Russia.
Local authorities suspect arsonists of being behind some 30 devastating blazes that started late on Monday and shrouded the picturesque Provencal countryside in thick smoke, forcing thousands of holiday-makers to flee villas and camp sites.
President Jacques Chirac has pledged severe punishment for any arsonists involved, and police were yesterday testing samples taken from charred woodland for traces of petrol.
The blazes have killed four tourists and destroyed more than 8,000 hectares of pine woods. It took some 1,700 firefighters and 15 water-carrying aircraft to control them.
A 29-year-old man yesterday admitted starting some of the fires, saying he was furious at being rejected as a voluntary fireman.
Mr Stéphane Jousse, from the village of Figanières, who has been placed under investigation and risks up to 10 years in prison if charged, said he acted "out of spite" when he started seven fires this month, public prosecutor Mr Michel Raffin said.
Meanwhile, the biggest blaze on Croatia's Adriatic coast started on Tuesday in the Paklenica national park near the town of Zadar, a popular destination for holidaymakers and climbers, state radio said.