Hundreds of Portuguese firefighters on Thursday contained a forest blaze that had raged near the country's western coast for the past 24 hours, the civil protection agency said on its website.

Five helicopters, around 100 vehicles and more than 400 firefighters were sent to the Leira region to tackle the blaze that broke out on Wednesday following a week of unusually high temperatures.

The temperature in Lisbon reached 31 degrees (88 degrees Fahrenheit) Thursday, while some regions further inland saw temperatures as high as 34 degrees.

Portugal had been hit by a limited number of fires this year, with the amount of surface area burned from January to September down 71 percent compared to the annual average over the past ten years.