As many as 2.800 firefighters were mobilised yesterday Sunday to bring under control a series of forest fires raging in several areas of Portugal, where the heatwave prompted the government to step up the mobilisation of emergency services by declaring the state apparatus in a state of "preparedness" to deal with emergencies.
The biggest front has been raging since Thursday in the Urem (central) region, where nearly 700 firefighters are working to control the flames.
"The fire reached 50 metres from the last house in the village (). Everything burned up there," Donzilla Marquez told Agence France-Presse, referring to the hills between her community, Travesa de Almogadell, and the town of Freixiada.
The pensioner, 76 years old, who was rushed away from her home on Saturday night, was able to return yesterday morning to discover to her great relief that none of the houses in her community were damaged.
The fire, which charred at least 15,000 acres of vegetation according to an initial estimate, did however destroy at least two homes, according to emergency services, which carried out temporary evacuations in other villages threatened by the flames.
A few kilometres away, some 450 firefighters were battling another fire, which broke out in the community of Pombal, on the border of the Lairia and Santarem districts.
The fires of the last few days have resulted in some forty people, firefighters and civilians, being slightly injured, but most of the victims simply needed to be treated on the spot, as they had suffered mainly from smoke inhalation poisoning or were showing symptoms of exhaustion, according to the report released last night by the head of Civil Protection, André Fernandes.
Coming "peak of extreme meteorological conditions"
For the third consecutive day, Portuguese fire brigade forces were confronted with about a hundred fire outbreaks across the Iberian country, while "the peak of extreme meteorological conditions" has not even arrived yet, Mr.
Thermometers have already shown 44° Celsius in some places, but the Portuguese national meteorological service predicts that the temperature will rise even more around the middle of this week.
Following what Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who cancelled a trip he had planned to make to Mozambique to monitor the situation closely, called a "high risk" weekend, the Portuguese government has decided to declare the emergency services in a "state of emergency preparedness" from Monday to Friday. In addition to increasing the level of preparedness of the State apparatus, this measure also allows it to impose more restrictions.
Lisbon
has also asked the European Union to activate the Joint Civil Protection Mechanism, thus ensuring the deployment of two fire-fighting aircraft stationed in Spain.
Although Interior Minister José Luis Carneirou assessed that Portugal is facing the "worst combination of factors" since the fires of June and October 2017, when more than a hundred people lost their lives, President Marcelo Hempelu de Souza, for his part, considers that there is no "comparison" of the level of preparedness of the state apparatus.
The fires that are multiplying around the world are attributed by scientists to global warming. Rising temperatures, proliferating and prolonged heat waves and a reduction in rainfall in some places are a combination that favours an increase in the number and intensity of fires.
Source: protothema.gr
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