14 Firefighters Die in Portuguese Blaze

Fourteen volunteer firefighters, including three brothers, were burned to death after being overcome by smoke from a blaze they were fighting in a rugged forest in northern Portugal, authorities said Monday.

Only hours after they died, the fire was extinguished by a violent rainstorm.

Police in Lamego, about 190 miles north of Lisbon, said 15 firefighters, all volunteers from the town of Armamar, east of Lamego, were called out Sunday night to fight a blaze raging in surrounding wood- and scrub-covered hills.

The charred bodies of 14 of them were found early Monday by a search party of police and local residents. One of the team survived and is being treated in a hospital, police said.