LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal's prime minister appeared to lose his patience with journalists' questions Wednesday as accusations flew about who might be to blame for the deaths of 64 people in a recent wildfire.

Antonio Costa pledged to clarify the "contradictory information" as soon as possible amid claims and counter-claims between different authorities involved in fighting the deadly blaze.

He walked away from reporters before returning and saying "nobody is more eager than I am to find out" what happened.

Criticism of how the blaze was handled has focused mainly on the country's emergency telecommunications network, known by its acronym SIRESP.

Firefighters say the system didn't work properly during the five days they fought the wildfire that started in central Portugal on June 17, when the deaths occurred. The Civil Protection Agency, which operates the firefighting service, said in a report that flaws in the radio system prevented the smooth flow of information between the command post and firefighters.

The company that runs SIRESP insisted in a separate report that the system "met the challenge," handling 1.1 million calls over the five days. However, it acknowledged the network was occasionally overloaded, with 8.3 percent of emergency calls on the night of the deaths getting a busy signal.

An Interior Ministry report, meanwhile, pointed a finger at the Civil Protection Agency. The CPA, it said, should have ordered the deployment of extra mobile satellite receivers to handle the exceptional load of calls. There were more than 1,000 firefighters, plus police and medical staff at the fire, all of them using SIRESP.

The current prime minister's possible indirect involvement in the catastrophe role also came under scrutiny, from a time when he was interior minister in charge of police and firefighters, in 2006. The Jornal de Noticias reported that, in that year, Portugal's Audit Court expressed misgivings that the contract awarded to the company running SIRESP hadn't gone to public tender. Costa didn't address that report.

The catastrophe has also provided political ammunition to opposition parties, with some calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Constanca Urbano de Sousa.

The prime minister says he won't act until he gets all the information he needs. The government says it has already received five reports into the catastrophe and is awaiting two others.

In an open letter published on social media Wednesday, 12 academic experts urged the European Commission to support research into fires in forests and buildings, including causes and consequences.

The letter published by the Center of Excellence in Risk and Decision Sciences, which operates under the auspices of European University Cyprus, said "fire science is limited and not sufficiently developed."