Passadiços de Paiva suffered fire damage in 2016 as well
Part of the wooden section of the iconic Passadiços de Paiva (Paiva Walkways), in Arouca, is on fire and, although there is no housing risk in this area, the local authority said that the fight against the remaining fire is “without sufficient means” and “inglorious”.
The fire in this municipality in the Aveiro and Porto Metropolitan Area started in Castro Daire, in the Viseu district, and has raged since 11 pm last night.
By the end of this morning it involved the work of around 100 firefighters, supported by 25 vehicles.
“This is inglorious,” mayor of Arouca Margarida Belém told Lusa.
“We are short of resources, we need a lot more people here to fight the fire, and whoever is managing these resources at national level has to be aware of the terrain and act according to what it demands, otherwise, at this rate of spread, what happened in 2016 will be repeated here,” she said.
The mayor’s reference is to the fire that, in August of that year, consumed around 8,600 hectares of forest in Arouca in one week, and another 17,000 in the neighbouring municipality of São Pedro do Sul.
In the first of these municipalities alone, the damage was estimated at more than €100 million.
Based on this memory, the mayor now says: “There should have been more operatives from other organisations here. And this isn’t to belittle what’s happening in other municipalities – it is to emphasise the seriousness of what’s happening in ours.”
The destroyed section of the walkway along the River Paiva is at the end near the Areínho river beach: “The staircase near the Alvarenga Bridge is on fire, and we still don’t have an exact idea of the extent of the burnt area, but it extends beyond the suspension bridge“.
Margarida Belém argues, however, that this is not the situation that most worries the authorities. “Of course, it is a valuable property that’s being lost, but much more valuable is human life, and that’s what worries us since the fire is encircling some villages and we cannot have firefighters at every point where there are houses.”
The municipality’s swathe of forest exacerbates the risks: with 329.11 square kilometres, the territory classified as a UNESCO geopark is 85% forest, and part of this “is burning with brutal intensity” on three active fronts – namely in Alvarenga, in the Covêlo de Paivó and Janarde area, and also in Canelas and Espiunca.
The area causing the most concern is Ponte de Telhe because if the fire crosses the Paivó river, it could spread to new fronts – as happened in 2016.
At the beginning of this morning, the villages of Telhe, Covelo de Paivô, Meitriz, Regoufe, Silveiras, Vila Galega, Vila Nova, Santo António, Travessa, Várzeas, Vilarinho, Vila Cova and Serabigões were already confined, from where people with reduced mobility were being taken to relatives’ homes elsewhere.
At the same time, the town hall closed all schools in the municipality, assigning the headquarters of Arouca and Escariz schools to the exclusive reception of “children and dependents of professionals directly involved in rescue operations in the context of the fires”, including those in the health sector, the security forces and the rescue services.
Four roads have also been closed to traffic in both directions.
Elsewhere, the blaze in Tábua has been classified as ‘dominated’, while in Gondomar the mayor is calling for exhausted firefighters to be substituted.
Source material: LUSA
