After the strong heat caused by the Lucifer anticyclone, various southern European countries, including France with the Var department, have experienced more or less significant fires in recent days.
After neighboring Spain, Portugal had to deal with a major forest fire for two days in the Algarve region, in the south of the country, usually popular with tourists.
Still "active" but declared "in resolution" in the afternoon, the fire devastated at least 9,000 ha of forests, orchards and brushwood, causing a slight injury among the firefighters and causing the evacuation of 81 inhabitants. 'a dozen hamlets, according to a report established in the middle of the day Tuesday by the emergency services.
Struck in 2017 by the deadliest forest fires in its history which killed more than a hundred people, Portugal had so far had a relatively calm year on the fire front.
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The most important outbreak of this summer was declared in the night from Sunday to Monday in the municipality of Castro Marim, in the hinterland of the Algarve, near the Spanish border. After being given as circumscribed for the first time, it caught fire in the evening of Monday, progressing in a "lightning" way towards the municipalities of Tavira and Vila Real de Santo António, described Tuesday the commander of the regional civil protection, Richard Marques.
Fanned by the force of the wind, the flames descended from the hills towards the coast, interrupting for several hours traffic on the motorway that crosses the Algarve from east to west.
According to testimonies gathered by local media, several agricultural and residential buildings were damaged, at least partially, but the authorities have not confirmed this information.
Fire alert until Wednesday
Faced with the scorching temperatures conducive to forest fires that Portugal has known since Friday, Lisbon extended the fire alert in force in most of the territory until Wednesday evening.
In neighboring Spain, the fire which broke out on Saturday in Navalacruz, near Avila (Center-West), remains "active" at "level 2 of dangerousness", but its development is described as "favorable" by the authorities of the region of Castile and León.
This forest fire, which mobilized up to a thousand rescuers and numerous air resources, devastated at least 12,000 hectares and led to the evacuation this weekend of nearly a thousand inhabitants.
Like dozens of other medium-sized fires, it is the result of the heat wave that has swept Spain since Wednesday, with abnormally high temperatures that climbed to 47.4 degrees on Saturday in Andalusia (south), an absolute temperature record recorded in the country, according to the national meteorological agency.
The fires that are increasing across the globe, as in recent weeks in Greece, Turkey and Algeria, are associated with various phenomena anticipated by scientists due to global warming.
