There are over 2,000 firefighters on the ground. Burnt area in Portugal is already higher than last year
40 fires: 11 ongoing, 8 under resolution and 21 nearing completion. This is the overview of the country at 9:19 am this Friday, July 15, according to the Civil Protection website. There are more than two thousand operators on the ground, with more than 800 land in the district of Leiria alone — where, after a week, the fire in Vale de Leiria entered the resolution phase at 6:15 am.
According to Commander José Rodrigues, of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC), the fires in the districts of Porto, Leiria and Viana do Castelo were the ones that most worried the firefighters, with Pombal and Leiria continuing to mobilize the largest number of resources — 789 firefighters, 217 vehicles and an air vehicle.
In the Algarve — where the fire threatened Quarteira and Quinta do Lago, with homes at risk and displaced residents —, at the time of publication of this article, there are records of fires, all of them controlled and nearing completion.
Burnt area in Portugal is already higher than the whole of last year
Prime Minister António Costa, already alerted to the fact that this, 14th, is “the most serious day”, according to the month’s forecast, and had confirmed: Portugal never reached 47ºC during the month of July. Until then, the highest value of the maximum temperature was recorded in Amareleja, on August 1, 2003, with 47.3°C, according to CNN Portugal.
The high temperatures and atypical temperatures are reached in the country not that the fires in this regard are worrying: we are still in July, but an area burned in Portugal is already higher than all the values of last year. ONEthis friday, july 15th, the burned area is bigger since 2017, the year that was marked by the fires of Pedrógão Grande.
Since the start of 2022, more than 30 thousand hectares have burned – 38,616, more precisely, in a total of 6,086 occurrences, according to a publication notification. In 2021, the entire area did not reach 28,415 hectares.
18 districts at maximum or very high risk of fires
At 6 am on Friday, the 15th, the Mirandela meteorological station already registered 30.5ºC, the highest season in the entire cold hour country. However, it is far from the only target of this heat wave. According to the newspaper “Observador”, Portugal has district five under a red warning, four under an orange warning and nine with a yellow warning due to high temperatures — and all of them (18) are at maximum or very high risk of fire.
At least until 9 pm on Saturday, the 16th, Vila Real, Bragança, Guarda, Castelo Branco and Portalegre will be under red warning, which, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), corresponds to “a risky meteorological situation”. extreme”.
Viseu, Coimbra, Santarém and Évora are under orange warning until 9 pm this Friday, 15.
Contingency situation extended until Sunday
would only be until this Friday, 15th, but the contingency situation in Portugal, because of the initial risk of fires, will even last until Sunday, 17th. The announcement was made this Thursday, 14th, by the first – minister during a visit to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), reports the newspaper “Público”.
It is not yet certain whether Sunday will, in fact, be the last day of the contingency situation, and, similarly to what happened with the first defined period, it can also be reassessed. Temperatures are close to dropping, but, according to António Costa, “there is a legacy that passes from day to day”.
“The low will go down in the coming days, but we have a temperature for the land that is on fire, in addition to the wear and tear of the forces that are on fire”, he said.