Heat in Portugal: fires have already mobilised over 1,000 firefighters

From midnight to 3 p.m. Thursday, 1,995 responders and hundreds of assets tackled rural fires on the mainland; Civil Protection reports 62 incidents. The Vouzela fire remains active in a “complex area”, worrying the authorities. With the country on alert because of the heatwave, the national territory is already seeing the first major wildfires of the season. According to the Civil Protection Authority, 62 incidents were recorded between midnight and 3 p.m. this Thursday, some of them overnight. One of them is the large fire currently burning in the municipality of Vouzela. According to Mário Silvestre, National Commander of the National Civil Protection Authority (ANPC), the blaze broke out at around 3 a.m. and is still ‘burning in a very complex area’. According to data on the Civil Protection website, at 4.15 p.m. the fire was being tackled by 303 personnel, 90 ground assets and four aerial resources. As well as Vouzela, at 4.14 p.m. there were four other rural fires: two in Vila Nova de Famalicão, one in Montijo and another in Ourém. More than 500 firefighters and other responders are battling the flames on the ground, supported by over 140 vehicles and 10 aircraft. Since midnight, the incidents recorded have involved a total of 1,995 personnel, 537 ground assets and 62 aircraft, according to the ANPC commander. The ANPC has raised the special state of readiness to levels two and three across the country and is considering placing the entire mainland territory at level three tomorrow. Mário Silvestre said the response system is being reinforced, particularly through the pre-positioning of resources across the country, ‘above all in the areas most exposed’ to fire risk. The aerial fleet has also been strengthened, with ‘two Air Force helicopters already deployed to the Vouzela fire’. The ANPC insists that ‘all advance measures have been put in place’ but is urging the public to act with caution and responsibility. ‘We need to underline the importance of safe behaviour’, said Mário Silvestre. The ANPC commander warned that firefighting conditions are adverse and that even nightfall is unlikely to help the crews. ‘The window of opportunity that normally gives us greater capacity to extinguish fires at night will be very narrow tonight (2 July) and in the night of 3 to 4 July’, the commander explained, adding that ‘the forecast severity and fire potential in some regions of the country will peak at 11 p.m.’ on Thursday night. Heatwave: IPMA warns of a ‘long-lasting episode’ At a press conference that brought together several Civil Protection bodies, the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) also issued a warning about a severe and prolonged heatwave. ‘Temperatures will reach 40 degrees or even higher in some regions’, explained Jorge Ponte, noting that the situation ‘affects the entire mainland’. As well as very high daytime temperatures, nights will also be difficult, ‘with temperatures above 20 degrees and some even above 25 degrees’, particularly in Greater Lisbon and the Porto area. IPMA said the current heatwave will be ‘a very long-lasting episode’. ‘We expect this heatwave to last up to ten days in inland regions, while in coastal areas it may end slightly earlier’, Jorge Ponte explained. ‘It is virtually a whole week of persistently high temperatures, with very unfavourable conditions for fighting fires’, the expert said, adding that humidity levels will be low, even at night, and that strong winds are expected, especially over the next few hours. ‘It is an extremely complex meteorological scenario’, he stressed. Portugal placed on alert The Portuguese government has declared a state of alert across the entire mainland territory, which will come into force at 00.00 on Friday 3 July and remain in place until 23.59 on Monday 6 July. ‘The declaration follows the raising of the special alert status of the Integrated System of Protection and Relief Operations (SIOPS) and the need to adopt preventive and special measures in response to the fire risk forecast by the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) for much of the mainland territory’, the government said in a statement.