Fires of Arouca, Gondomar ‘in resolution’; Ponte da Barca still main concern
Hundreds of firefighters are still on the ground in the north and centre, battling to contain recent fires. Some have entered resolution already; others are still going – Ponte da Barca being the principal concern, a fire that has been raging now for almost one week.
Damages are huge, essentially incalculable at this stage – albeit certain municipalities are totting up figures and arriving at several millions of euros in losses.
The ministry of agriculture has promised speedy resolution to farmers’ problems – many now with no feed for their animals, even if these have managed to survive.
Part of the Cinfães natural reserve has suffered fire damage, areas of Rede Natura 2000, thousands of hectares of land, at least two houses (Arouca) and the warehouse of a business, housing various materials. But this far, there has been no loss of human life.
In the case of fires brought under resolution, the main work will be on keeping them out; checking for hot spots, etc.
The forecast for the coming days is so dire, meteorologically-speaking, that there is no space for complacency. The fight is still very much on, and will remain so until at least the middle of next week.
As for the criticisms of ‘not enough fire-fighting airplanes’ in certain places, deputy secretary of state for internal administration Paulo Simões Ribeiro has said that resources are sufficient, it is just that with so many fires, they cannot “be everywhere at the same time”.
The problem with comments like this is that for communities where fires are still burning, like Ponte da Barca, they give little sense of reassurance. Villages in the municipality are ‘terrified’; many have been evacuated, then allowed to return to their homes, but are still very apprehensive that ‘the wind could change’, and the nightmare could bear down towards them, yet again.
There are nine aerial resources working over the Ponte da Barca fire this afternoon, along with almost 700 firefighters, and hundreds of appliances.
All told, throughout the country, at 4pm today 2,600 firefighters were tackling blazes/ keeping fires under control, backed by 23 aerial resources.
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