2023-08-08 16:43:21
Several areas of Portugal are at the mercy of temperatures that reached 46°C yesterday in Santarém, in the center of the country, and forest fires, with 16 aircraft and around 2,800 firefighters currently mobilized to fight the flames across the territory.
Published on: 08/08/2023 – 16:43
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In a last public communication this afternoon, the Portuguese civil protection reported that “three significant occurrences”in Odemira (district of Beja), Cinfães and Mangualde (both in the district of Viseu), the first being “the one that deserves the most concern”.
Close to 900 firefighters are still deployed in Odemira, in the southwest of the country, where according to first estimates, 7,000 hectares have burned since Saturday. The authorities also refer that since the weekend 20 villages and almost 1500 people have been evacuated from that area.
Civil protection also said that weather conditions in the southwest will remain unfavourable, due to the heat and dry wind, and firefighters are trying to prevent the fire from progressing towards the Monchique mountain range, further south.
At the same time, the authorities say that in the Leiria area, in the west of the country, the fires are calming down after having already devastated around 7,000 hectares of bush over the last few days.
Speaking to the press today, the Councilor for Civil Protection of the Chamber of Leiria considered that the fires in the Caranguejeira area “They are not the work of chance” and recommended that the population remain vigilant and collaborate with the authorities in investigations into the origin of the fires.
The state of alert is maintained both in Portugal and in Spain, whose southwestern part of Spain has been on orange alert today, with the province of Córdoba, in Andalusia, reaching the red alert level, synonymous with extreme danger, announced the meteorological agency (Aemet) when referring that the high temperatures should remain at least until Thursday.
The Iberian Peninsula has been at the forefront of global warming in Europe, with the multiplication of episodes of extreme heat, drought and fires.
According to preliminary data, around 100,000 hectares have already burned in 2023 in Spain and Portugal, against more than 400,000 in total in 2022
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