More than 100 wildfires are stretching thousands of firefighters to the limit in northern Portugal

LISBON, Portugal -- More than 100 wildfires stretched thousands of firefighters to the limit in northern Portugal on Wednesday, with seven deaths since the worst spate of fires in recent years spread out of control over the weekend.

Portugal's firefighters have mastered most of the deadly forest fires in the north of the country, according to official data on Thursday.

Three Portuguese firefighters died on Tuesday in one of dozens of forest blazes ravaging the country's central and northern regions, bringing the death toll from the latest wildfires to seven people since Saturday,

Portugal has brought under control the remaining forest fires it battled this week in the north of the country, rescuers said on Friday.More than 120,000 hectares across Portugal had been burnt by wildfires since the start of the year,

Firefighters tackling deadly wildfires in central and northern Portugal had doused the flames in the Aveiro district, one of the worst-hit, as of Thursday, and were focusing on eight large blazes still raging elsewhere.