In Portugal, the terrible image of this city about to be ravaged by flames

PORTUGAL – Flames continue to ravage Portugal, as this gigantic forest fire in the north of the country has already killed seven people, including four firefighters, since this weekend. The fire has already ravaged a larger area than was burned during the rest of the summer. This Wednesday, September 18, it was still progressing and is threatening in particular the city of Vila Mea, northeast of Porto.

The photos of the homes in this town surrounded by flames are chilling and show the extent of the devastation.

Three firefighters, two women and a man, were trapped by the flames near Tabua, in the central region of Coimbra, the Interior Ministry said. The other victims of the fires were a 28-year-old Brazilian employed by a forestry company who died of burns on Monday while trying to retrieve tools, two people who suffered heart attacks and a volunteer firefighter who died of a sudden illness on the sidelines of an operation.

Around fifty active fires

On Tuesday afternoon, more than fifty active fires, fanned by violent winds, mobilized some 4,500 firefighters across the country, where the disasters left a total of seven dead and around fifty injured.

“Today was quite a difficult day (…) and the night will be too” due in particular to the strong winds expected, said civil protection services spokesman André Fernandes at a press briefing on Tuesday evening.

He also said that 62 people had to be relocated on Tuesday, adding that he did not yet have complete data on the number of injured and houses affected. The most worrying front is raging in the region of Aveiro (north) where the flames have threatened villages.

Risk “maximum”

Early in the afternoon, in Arrancada, near Agueda, the sky suddenly darkened. A column of black smoke rose in the gardens of a house. In the street, worried residents came out of their homes, rushing to help fight a fire that broke out again in a small agricultural warehouse.

On Monday evening, authorities estimated the area destroyed at some 10,000 hectares of forest and scrubland in the Aveiro hinterland, according to provisional data. “alert situation”in effect since Saturday afternoon due to a fire risk deemed “maximum” in much of the northern half of the country, has been extended until Thursday evening.

The Lisbon authorities have activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism to obtain eight additional water bomber planes. Spain, France, Italy and Greece have responded to the call.

After indicating that measures would be taken quickly to help the municipalities affected by this disaster, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro also announced the creation of a “specialized team” to investigate the criminal origin of the forest fires, following an extraordinary council of ministers.

The worst conditions combined

According to specialists interviewed by the weekly Expresso, Monday brought together in the northern half of the country the worst weather conditions in terms of fire risk since 2001.

This resulted in some 160 fires breaking out, a dozen of which subsequently grew to significant proportions, making it very difficult to fight the flames.

Experts believe that increasingly intense heat waves and droughts are consequences of climate change and are fuelling forest fires.

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