‘It was chaotic!’: says a resident of the village of Orjais, at the foot of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park in central Portugal. Many ways have been mobilized there on Wednesday to deal with the inferno that started on August 6.
“The fire was coming here and there,” Fatima Cardoso, who experienced moments of agony as the flames approached the houses, told AFPTV on Tuesday. Firefighters, I love them (…) But as far as I can see, there is no coordination between them, this 62-year-old woman is sorry, while people are fighting to put out the fire.
The Serra da Estrela fire, which was declared under control last week, flared up again on Monday. Due to the speed of the wind, the flames continue to rise.
On Wednesday morning, more than 1,200 firefighters were hard at work, supported by 400 vehicles awaiting aerial intervention in the morning, trying to ‘stabilize’ and ‘contain’ the fire by Friday before temperatures rise again. , Civil Defense Commander Andre Fernandez explained during a press conference on Tuesday evening.
The Serra da Estrela fire left 24 people injured, three of them seriously, while 45 people had to be evacuated as a precaution since Monday, according to the latest civil defense report. Among the minor injuries were two firefighters who died when their truck overturned in an accident.
The smell of burning for Madrid
According to provisional data from the European Forest Fire Information System, the fires in Portugal, already the biggest this summer, have consumed around 24,000 hectares, including more than 8,000 since Monday. Spanish emergency services reported a burning smell in Madrid on Tuesday.
The fire, which broke out on August 6 near Covilha (center), destroyed the unique species in this UNESCO-recognized park, reaching a peak of about 2000 meters in the center of the Serra da Estrela mountain range.
Portuguese authorities, surprised to see the fire rekindle in three different locations simultaneously on Monday, have launched an investigation to determine its origin, said Duarte Costa, head of the National Civil Protection Commission.
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