Portugal faces a violent resumption of forest fires in the center of the country

The Portuguese Meteorological Institute announced, on Monday, that the country will see temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius, or even 45 degrees Celsius in some places. The wildfires that hit central Portugal this weekend resumed strong on Tuesday, July 12, due to scorching temperatures and violent winds.

Portuguese TV channels show firefighters and residents trying to slow the progress of the blazes threatening the municipalities of Leiria, Pombal, Ourem or Alvizire, located just over a hundred kilometers north of Lisbon.

According to the data provided by the website of the National Civil Protection Authority, five crowds of nearly 1,300 firefighters, more than 300 vehicles and dozens of planes or helicopters in the same area, at the confluence of the provinces of Leiria and Santarém.

Three of them showed up on Tuesday, but the other two actually declared themselves last weekend, destroying about 2,500 hectares, before being considered confined on Monday morning.

“These are very violent fires with a very large perimeter indeed.”confirmed the National Commander of Civil Protection, Andre Fernandez, during a press briefing in the early evening, referring to the weather conditions. “Intense” And the “Unpublished”.

He said several villages and about 300 people who were in the town of Freixianda in the municipality of Orem had been evacuated. Traffic was halted on several roads, including Highway 1, which connects Lisbon with northern Portugal.

16 out of 18 counties in the province are on red alert

Since Thursday, emergency services have identified about thirty minor injuries and at least ten homes damaged, according to an interim report. In a country still reeling from the shock of the deadly 2017 wildfires that killed more than a hundred people, the government has decreed” case of emergency » Between Monday and Friday, in order to raise the level of emergency services mobilization and the restrictions they can impose. Lisbon also asked the European Union to activate its Common Civil Protection Mechanism, and on Sunday secured the dispatch of two sea-bomber aircraft stationed in Spain.

“The weather forecast for the next few days remains very worrying in terms of fire risks”Prime Minister Antonio Costa confirmed on Tuesday, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius in most parts of Portugal. The temperature rose to 43.1 degrees Celsius near the town of Abrantes in the Santarem region.

The heat wave is expected to continue to escalate on Wednesday, with 16 out of 18 regions in mainland Portugal placed on red alert by the National Meteorological Institute, double what it was on Tuesday.