But Marta Soares told local news media the fire had already been burning for two hours before the storm started Saturday.
By the evening, firefighters - 1,500 were mobilised in all - and firefighting planes were concentrating on fires in the area around Pampilhosa.
Reports that a firefighting plane crashed in Portugal while tackling the country's deadly forest fire have turned out to be false.
Television stations SIC and TVI said the Canadair aircraft had crashed near Pedrogao Grande, centre of the biggest fire that has killed 64 people since Saturday.
Some 30 water-dropping aircraft have been battling the blazes, some operating under bilateral agreements with the Portuguese government and others as part of an European Union co-operation agreement.
Civil Protection Agency spokesman Fausto Coutinho suggested that word of a plane crash was based on misleading information relayed from the fire area.
He says a local woman told him she saw a plane crash in a fireball.
Several other fires have now spread through the region and there are now more than 2,000 firefighters involved in the efforts, said Vaz Pinto.
"There was an abandoned hot-dog caravan with bottles of gas, and this might have exploded, he said".
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The government has reported 258 militants being killed, including a Chechen, a Libyan, Malaysians and other foreigners. He said authorities are checking if the rebels have released five civilians they held hostage.
Spain, France and Italy have sent a total of 19 water bombers to help with the operation.
Raging forest fires in Portugal have killed at least 62 people, most of whom burnt to death in their cars, the government said Sunday, in one of the worst such disasters in recent history.
According to the regional head of the civil protection services, 95 percent of the fire had been put out by Wednesday, but some 1,200 firefighters were trying to control the remaining flames.
Firefighters in Portugal say they are close to bringing under control a major wildfire that killed 64 people in the central area of the country.
But officials with the Portuguese government and the Civil Protection Agency said they could not confirm the crash.
Temperatures forecast to reach 43 C, gusting winds and bone-dry woodland were fuelling the blazes, Vaz Pinto said.
The official death toll from the fires now stands at 64.
It has been dubbed the "road of death" as Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa led calls to find out why it had not been shut.
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