A Canadian plane fighting a forest fire in Portugal crashed last night near Vila Nova de Foz Coe, in the northern district of Gardi, killing the pilot of the plane, which had no one else on board, civil protection said.

"For now, we have no details about what happened," said the commander of the national civil protection, Andre Fernandez.

The aircraft was a medium-sized FireBoss type.

"I received with disbelief the news of the death of the pilot of the plane that crashed while fighting the fire," Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced on Twitter.

A series of fires broke out in Portugal, where temperatures have been high all week, and the rescue service reported on Friday evening that a dozen active fires had been extinguished by more than 900 firefighters.

Just over 30.000 hectares have burned in Portugal since the start of 2022, the most since 2017, marked by deadly fires that killed hundreds of people.