A water bomber plane crashed on Saturday while fighting a forest fire in northern Portugal, seriously injuring the two members of its crew, civil protection said.
The plane was fighting a fire that broke out at dawn on Saturday in the town of Lindoso, in the heart of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, which borders the Spanish region of Galicia.
Commander Pedro Araujo, of the National Civil Protection Authority, explained that the Canadair-type aircraft had crashed "on an uninhabited mountainous area after a water loading maneuver". Images shot by a Spanish firefighter picked up by the Portuguese media showed the damaged yellow plane, smoking on a rocky massif.
Hay dos incendios, el # IFManínLobios a donde nos directíamos #Brif Laza y otro incendio provocado por accidente de un hidroavión que imaginamos estaría trabajando en ese incendio ... El foca parece ser que es de Portugal. Nosotros bajamos donde este último. pic.twitter.com/uUgTb9GS6X
- Diario de un Bombero (@BrifLaza) August 8, 2020At the time of the accident, seven Portuguese and four Spanish aircraft were trying to control this forest fire. More than a hundred Portuguese firefighters were still mobilized on Saturday on this fire in order to overcome the flames.
The fire season is in full swing
In France, several fires raged this week near Marseille. Fanned by strong winds, one devastated 1,025 hectares of vegetation in a coastal area of Martigues, authorities say. The fire broke out at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday and was brought under control for the first time this Wednesday at midday.
“A great point of relief is that there is no casualty. However, there could have been many victims: two holiday villages were destroyed and then all along the path of the fire, there were houses which were affected, ”declared Gaby Charroux, mayor of Martigues.
“It is a fire which was very virulent with a speed of propagation, at certain times, of 8 km / h, it is dantesque. It's the speed of someone who runs, and who runs well, ”testified on Franceinfo Grégory Allione, chief of the Bouches-du-Rhône fire brigade.
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Since last weekend, access to all the forest areas of Bouches-du-Rhône has been banned due to strong winds and high temperatures which increase the risk of fires. Between 2015 and 2019, 9,300 hectares of forest burned on average each year in the departments of the Mediterranean coast.
VIDEO. Martigues: firefighters stranded by flames survive thanks to their coolness
