A wildfire in the Serra da Estrela Natural Park in central Portugal that was declared under control last week has flared up again, according to civil protection. More than a thousand firefighters were deployed Tuesday morning.
After being declared under control overnight from Friday to Saturday, the fire restarted on Monday afternoon with “violent behavior”, driven by “a strong wind”, civil defense commander Andre Fernandez explained during a press conference on Monday evening. Several villages were evacuated as a precautionary measure, he said.
The Serra da Estrela fire, already the largest in Portugal this summer, has turned into a smoke zone of around 15,000 hectares, according to the latest provisional data from Portuguese authorities. The August 6 fire near Covilha (center) reached its peak in the heart of the Serra da Estrela mountain range, at an altitude of about 2000 meters, and destroyed the unique forest areas of this UNESCO-recognized Global Geopark.
As the Civil Protection Command fires to handle its operations, Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro promised on Monday to begin an assessment of the ‘structural causes’ and ‘mode of warfare’ against the fire ‘once the Serra da Estrela fire is extinguished’.
Portugal, which has been experiencing an exceptional drought this year, experienced its hottest July in almost a century. Since the beginning of this year, about 80,000 hectares have already become a smoke zone, the largest area since the deadly fires in 2017 that killed 100 people, according to the Institute for Conservation. According to a recent report by Nature and Forestry.
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