Combat at 7am involves over 1,000 firefighters backed by 356 appliances
Early this morning there was still no joy for the embattled residents of villages in Serra da Estrela.
The fire that began in the early hours of Saturday morning near a village in the parish of Cantar-Galo e Vila do Carvalho is still raging; still causing evacuations, panic and misery.
Last night, after another “very violent” reignition fanned by strong winds, areas that had been wrestled into ‘resolution’ were back raging.
Civil Protection admitted in the final press briefing that it was going to be a long and difficult night – which is exactly what it was.
The fire leapt borough boundaries on Saturday and has since devoured hectares of unique biosphere – natural heritage landscape that will be almost impossible to recover.
The only ‘good aspect’ so far is that no-one has been seriously injured, albeit three firefighters have had to be pulled out of the theatre of operations for ‘light injuries’.
As we said in our last report, fires of this dimension in Serra da Estrela are known to remain active for at least five days. Today (Wednesday) signals the 5th day.
Updates to come.
