The government declared a “state of emergency” from Monday to Friday next week, urging the EU to activate its joint civil protection mechanism to ensure the dispatch of two sea bomber planes based in Spain.
Around 1,500 firefighters on Sunday tried to put out three forest and bush fires that have been raging for several days in central and northern Portugal, which the government has placed in a “state of emergency” over searing temperatures.
“The fire arrived 50 meters from the last house in the village (…). Everything is burned there,” Donzilia Marques told AFP, pointing to the hills between her hamlet of Travessa de Almogadel and the town of Freixianda in the city of Ourém (centre). The 76-year-old pensioner, who was evacuated from her home the night before, was able to return there on Sunday morning, relieved to find no house there had burned down.
SEE ALSO – Portugal: A forest specialist criticizes “unpreparedness” in the face of fires
Also readFires: When can we really speak of a “mega fire”?
But the fire, which ignited Thursday and mobilized more than 700 peacekeepers on Sunday after devastating at least 1,500 hectares of vegetation, destroyed at least two homes, according to Civil Protection. The fires of the past few days have injured at least a dozen firefighters and nearly twenty of the general public, but most of the victims were treated at the scene for symptoms of poisoning or exhaustion.
Not far from there, in the municipality of Pombal, also located at the confluence of the districts of Leiria and Santarém, another fire has been raging since Friday, mobilizing 450 firefighters. The fire that broke out in Carrazeda de Ansiães in the Bragança region (northeast) on Thursday was this weekend’s other “high-risk” flashpoint, according to Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who canceled a trip to Mozambique to assess the situation as accurately as possible.
Temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius
The Portuguese government has decided to raise the alert level by declaring a “state of emergency” from Monday to Friday next week and has called on the European Union to activate its joint civil protection mechanism and secure the deployment of two sea bomber planes based in Spain.
“We are facing an almost unprecedented situation in meteorological terms,” commented national civil defense commander André Fernandes, while more than 120 fire outbreaks per day were recorded on Friday and Saturday.
For his part, referring to temperatures that could reach 45 degrees Celsius, Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro said Portugal was facing the “worst confluence of factors” since the fires of June and October 2017 that killed more than a hundred people.
Also readThe Bordezac fire in the Cevennes stuck but worrying weather conditions
The fires, which are proliferating around the world, are linked to various phenomena that scientists are anticipating due to global warming. The rise in temperature, the multiplication of heat waves and the local decrease in precipitation are thus an ideal combination for the development of fires. The current heatwave is affecting a country where “extreme drought” affected 28.4% of the territory at the end of June, up from 1.4% a month earlier.
SEE ALSO – Gard: Fire brigade continues to fight “mega fire”