Forest fires in Portugal: the situation is getting worse - 3,000 firefighters on duty
Created: 07/11/2022 08:36
By: Martina Lippl
Forest fires are raging in Portugal: emergency services from the fire brigade are trying to bring the flames under control, as here in Casais do Vento in Alvaiazere.
© PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/afp
Portugal has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Forest fires are raging in the north and center of the country.
Thousands of emergency services are fighting the flames.
Lisbon – Heat and drought are extreme in Portugal.
A tiny spark is enough to start a devastating forest fire.
Experts warn that the country has never been exposed to such a high risk of forest fire in the last 42 years.
Climatologist Carlos da Camara urged the population in the Portuguese newspaper
JN
not to use anything that could cause a spark in the coming days.
Portugal declared the emergency situation from July 11 to 14, 2022 on Saturday.
The civil defense can now mobilize all the means available to the country to fight the forest fires.
There is a heightened alert.
In addition, the country has activated the EU civil protection procedure.
Two Canadair firefighting aircraft from Spain are now supporting firefighters in Portugal.
Portugal: More than 250 forest fires reported
Flames are already blazing across the country.
Around 2,800 firefighters are deployed in central and northern Portugal.
Some fires have been active since Thursday.
Around 40 firefighters and civilians were injured, but most of those affected were treated on site.
They suffered from symptoms of intoxication or exhaustion, as the national commander of civil protection, André Fernandes, announced on Sunday evening.
Almost 250 forest fires were reported to have broken out on Friday and Saturday.
The largest fire has been blazing in the Ourém region north of Lisbon inland since Thursday.
Almost 700 firefighters were deployed there alone.
According to initial estimates, at least 1,500 hectares of vegetation and two houses were destroyed by the flames.
More than 700 soldiers were sent to the area.
A little further north, another fire has been blazing since Friday, breaking out in the municipality of Pombal, which lies on the border of Leiria and Santarém counties.
There, 450 firefighters fought the flames.
Forest fires in Portugal: "We are facing an almost unprecedented meteorological situation"
Portugal's Prime Minister António Costa canceled a trip to Mozambique.
His government requested activation of the EU civil protection mechanism.
The Portuguese emergency services can then fall back on two fire-fighting aircraft stationed in Spain.
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"We are facing an almost unprecedented meteorological situation," said Fernandes on Saturday.
In May, 97 percent of the country suffered from a severe drought.
Scientists see a connection between climate change and more extreme and frequent weather events such as heat waves and wildfires.
Portugal suffers from the driest climate in 1,200 years
Portugal and Spain are suffering from an unprecedented drought.
The climate on the Iberian Peninsula is the driest in more than 1,200 years, according to recent studies published in the journal
Natur Geoscience
.
The US research team writes that most of the rain falls on the Iberian Peninsula in winter, when wet low-pressure areas flow in from the Atlantic.
But a so-called Azores high can block this weather situation.
And according to the scientists, large Azores highs have occurred more frequently in the last 100 years, according to evaluations of weather data and computer models.
The expansion of the Azores high in the industrial age is caused by human carbon emissions.
“What we are seeing here with the extension of the Azores High is bad news for winter precipitation in the Iberian Peninsula.
This has serious implications for agriculture and other sectors that depend on water resources," says co-author Dr.
Caroline Ummenhofer of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In Croatia, a major fire near Pula caused panic among the population.
Firefighters brought the flames under control in four hours.
(ml with material from afp)
