“It’s impossible to fight this fire with just one aerial resource!”
A seething mayor watching his municipality ravaged by a fire that began at the weekend in Ponte da Barca, within the Peneda-Gerês national park, has called on the government to “activate the European Civil Protection Mechanism* or bilateral agreements with Spain or other countries”, whatever is “quickest to help combat this scourge both in Ponte da Barca and across the country”.
“It’s impossible to fight this fire with just one aerial resource,” Augusto Marinho has told Lusa today. “That sentence says it all. I’m outraged, revolted”.
The subject of aerial resources, and how some areas are ‘lacking them’ has been consistently ‘pushed to one side’ in recent days, with the Minister for Internal Administration actually saying the numbers of firefighting planes and helicopters were “irrelevant”, due to the difficult terrain in which many of today’s fires are raging.
It is not a position accepted by Augusto Marinho, who insists that a lot more must be done.
His latest request comes after several unsuccessful appeals to the government for more aerial resources, particularly heavy-duty water bombers.
Marinho has spoken too of his despair, trying to protect little hamlets that are in danger of being “completely surrounded by flames”.
“The weather conditions have been changing. We already had a group of people on foot who were fighting the flames, but they had to retreat. It’s not easy. There are two fronts near the village (of Germil). Everything depends on the weather. I feel complete despair and frustration. We’ve been in this situation since Saturday. It has been many days.”
This awful blaze is one of many that start ‘inexplicably’ at night. It has been raging for four days, with moments where the situation looked ‘under control’, and many where it did not.
As we write, the mayor’s frustration appears to have ‘got things moving’, in that fogos.pt shows the fire is being tackled by eight air resources (not just one).
The government too has said it is intent on securing 76 firefighting aircraft for this fire season.
*The European Union Civil Protection Mechanism aims to coordinate the response to emergencies and disasters, offering assistance to countries affected by natural or man-made disasters.
The Peneda-Gerês national park covers the districts of Braga (municipality of Terras de Bouro), Viana do Castelo (municipality of Melgaço, Arcos de Valdevez and Ponte da Barca) and Vila Real (municipality of Montalegre), in a total area of approximately 70,290 hectares.
Source material: LUSA
