Temperatures finally falling; rain forecast
Only nine rural fires were still active in Portugal’s north and central regions early this morning, with the fires in Castro Daire, in the district of Viseu, mobilising the most resources,.
Commander Pedro Araújo, from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), gave the kind of news everyone has been waiting for: firefighting operations in most ongoing incidents progressed favourably during the night, with no victims or houses affected.
According to Pedro Araújo, there are currently nine active fires in the Alto Tâmega and Barroso sub-regions, the Porto Metropolitan Area, the Aveiro region, the Tâmega and Sousa sub-region and Viseu Dão Lafões.
“We still have fires of some severity in the districts of Castro Daire and Arouca. These are still fires with strong activity that justify a significant number of resources, and in the district of Castro Daire, in the sub-region of Viseu Dão Lafões, we have 550 firefighters, supported by 178 vehicles, and in the district of Arouca we have 234 firefighters, with 71 vehicles,” he said at the early morning news briefing.
According to Araújo, weather conditions are much more favourable today – less wind and an increase in relative humidity.
“We want to believe that a significant part of these fires will be contained today,” he stressed.
Meantime, the ‘balance of these fires’ is constantly changing: the death toll (originally put at seven) has been reduced to five, because two of the deaths were caused by heart failure and although precipitated by the situation could not be blamed on it. There have now been registers of at least 120 injuries (some serious), and over 106,000 hectares burnt, along with “dozens of homes/ commercial properties”. In the space of one dreadful week, 2024 went from a year in which the country had seen ‘less than usual the number of forest fires’ to one in which it has seen among the highest number in the last decade.
The final balance will come later – along with it the costs of rebuilding/ restoring/ recovering.
The best news of all is that ‘Autumn is on the way’ – according to meteorologists, the north and centre areas should be seeing rain (even thunderstorms) today and tomorrow, along with an overall drop in temperatures. Saturday may seen rain throughout the country.
