Deadly wildfires in Portugal are now under control but burned areas could now be impacted by heavy rains.
Portugal managed on Friday, September 20, to control all the forest fires that hit the north and center of the country this week, killing at least five people and devastating some 100,000 hectares of vegetationemergency services announced.
“All the situations that were still active yesterday and today at dawn have been dominated“declared at a press conference the national commander of civil protection, André Fernandes.
More than 120,000 hectares burned
This 2024 toll is the heaviest since the black year of 2017. Across the country, the area burned by fires since the start of the year now stands at more than 120,000 hectaresof which 60% is forest, 29% is scrubland and 11% is agricultural land, according to data from the National Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation (ICNF).
The human toll amounts to five deadincluding four firefighters, and a hundred injuredincluding 14 serious ones.
While falling temperatures and the arrival of rain have contributed to the extinction of the fires, showers However, stronger ones could cause severe flooding in the coming days. landslides in areas affected by the fires, he warned.
National Day of Mourning
The government has decreed a national day of mourning fridayand thanked France, Spain, Italy and Morocco for sending around ten water bomber planes as reinforcements.
Experts believe that increasingly intense heat waves and droughts are promoting forest fires and are consequences of the climate changewhich particularly affects the Iberian Peninsula.
