The forest fire, which mobilized around 1,500 firefighters on Thursday, destroyed around 10,000 hectares of vegetation in the mountainous part of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park. It is located in the center of Portugal.
According to a provisional estimate provided by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the area burned by Saturday’s fire in the municipality of Covilha corresponds to one-tenth of the 100,000 hectares of this UNESCO-classified geo-park. In 2020.
On Thursday, columns of smoke continued to rise above wooded hills east of the town of Mandegas, where water-bombing helicopters tried to slow the advance of the flames.
“The fire remains active despite a positive development,” Central Civil Defense Commander Miguel Cruz commented during a press conference.
Charred pines
Since Saturday, many slopes of the surrounding mountains have been completely charred by the fire and are now covered in charred pines.
‘Looking at this landscape is a bit confusing. It almost makes you cry,’ testified AFP’s Jonathan Demolin, a 35-year-old French tourist from the Orléans region to spend a holiday in his in-laws’ hometown.
According to officials, the fire resulted in eleven minor injuries among firefighters. A camp and riverbank were evacuated on Wednesday and a total of 26 people were temporarily displaced from their homes and two second homes were damaged.
Civil defense criticized
In the neighboring village of Verdelhos, which was hit by fire on Tuesday, people experienced moments of panic. ‘Fire came from all sides. It looked like he was going to swallow Verdelhos. It was terrible,” recalled Sandra Marcelino, a 43-year-old cafe owner.
Like her, many local residents were highly critical of the Civil Protection Command for not being able to stop the fire from spreading to the highest mountain on Portuguese territory, which tops out at around 2,000 meters.
The mayor of Montecas, Flavio Massano, criticized the rescue services, accusing them of concentrating their efforts on the protection of areas visited by Portugal’s cycle tour this weekend to the detriment of forests.
In a press release, the Ministry of Home Affairs acknowledged the need to analyze the management of operations.
‘Forest Abandonment’
The biodiversity of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park was the “first victim” of this fire, the Association for the Protection of the Environment regrets Quercus, which considers the fire to be the result of “abandonment of forests” in particular.
Portugal, which has been experiencing an exceptional drought this year, experienced its hottest July in nearly a century, according to the National Meteorological Institute.
According to the latest estimates from the Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF), since the beginning of the year, about 74,000 hectares have already become smoke zones.
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