Civil Protection praises firefighters: “(Overnight) we went from 80 fire front to 46”
Wednesday is beginning with news on the ‘fire fronts’ looking a great deal brighter.
Civil Protection has praised the work of firefighters overnight, and concedes that conditions for fighting fires that have already consumed well over 62,000 hectares of land “are more favourable”.
The country is in its third day of a Situation of Alert – and all the areas affected by fires are now in ‘Situations of Calamity’ (see below for what this entails). But there is also a ‘window of opportunity’ that has opened pointing a way out of “the completely anomalous scenario” of the last few days.
As authorities continue to stress, none of this would have been possible without the tireless work of firefighters.
Jorge Silva, from the Portuguese Association of Civil Protection Technicians, has described ‘the more than 5,000 firefighters with more than 1,400 vehicles’ fighting the flames through the night.
“At 1am we had almost 80 active fire fronts. We woke up at eight in the morning with 46. It was a great job all night by all the firefighters”, he said.
Regarding this third day of firefighting, Silva says that the forecast is for a ‘calm [wind] towards the end of the afternoon’ and ‘greater humidity during the night’. There’s also a drop in temperatures.
These are three fundamental factors for there to be good news today: there are more favourable conditions for fighting the fires.
But we are only at the start of Wednesday, thus every effort is focused on getting to the end of the day in the same context.
Meantime, prime minister Luís Montenegro ‘broke the mould’ of typical statements by political leaders during devastating wildfires. Vowing the government is focused on bringing all those behind them to justice, he spoke of ‘the private interests’ behind this dantesque level of destruction.
“It is the first time a prime minister has touched on this subject”, news anchor Rodrigo Guedes Carvalho admitted on last night’s SIC evening news.
The PM did not go into many details – but he was very clear: “The Portuguese deserve to know that the State is going after those responsible for these atrocities. We will not let them get away”.
To this end, the Justice ministry is creating “a specialised team to deepen all means of criminal investigation around these fires”, he said.
The team will include “elements of the security forces, and the Public Prosecutions Office”.
While other news media has mentioned the arrests of three suspected arsonists – two women and an elderly man – it is unlikely that these are connected to the ‘private interests’ that Luís Montenegro mentioned. These have traditionally have been linked to lumbar interests, although currently social media is buzzing with the possibility of a potential link with the mining sector, bearing in mind many of the areas devastated are covered by concessions earmarked for lithium prospection.
As to the Situations of Calamity decreed in all areas affected by the fires, these will help speed up authorities response to the needs of populations, said the PM.
The only other ministerial figure who has spoken during this drama (more of this below) is Manuel Castro Almeida, deputy minister for Territorial Cohesion. He met with mayors of affected municipalities yesterday to pledge various forms of state support. For instance, the state will pay 85% of the cost of reconstruction of homes damaged by the fires (councils are being asked to draw up a list of damages, currently understood to involve at least 70 homes), and give “abundant supports” in other respects, potentially reprogramming European funds.
Commentators however are focusing this morning on the ‘disappearance’ from the scene of the minister for interior administration (Margarida Blasco), who “has not said a word while the country burns”.
