Speaking to RTP, Vítor Pereira, mayor of Covilhã, considered that the fire of the last few days led to an “inestimable” loss of the region’s heritage.
In a protected area, UNESCO heritage, the area burned since the weekend should reach 4,000 hectares, estimates the mayor.
Vítor Pereira also highlighted the importance of air resources in fighting this fire, since the active fronts are in areas of difficult access.
According to the Castelo Branco District Operations and Relief Center (CDOS), at the beginning of the day, three command posts were set up – Penhas da Saúde (Covilhã), Manteigas and Sarzedo (Arganil) – and the fire had two fronts (Manteigas and Verdelhos) ).
The fire that started three days ago in Covilhã invaded the neighboring municipality of Manteigas and, according to the municipality’s accounts, destroyed more than a thousand hectares of forest in the Serra da Estrela Natural Park protected by UNESCO.
The fire broke out at 3:18 am on Saturday, in the town of Garrocho, parish of Cantar-Galo and Vila do Carvalho, in the municipality of Covilhã (Castelo Branco), and spread to Manteigas, in the district of Guarda.
During Sunday afternoon, three firefighters were removed from the theater of operations due to “illness, burns and trauma”, with two of them being transported to a hospital and another receiving assistance at a health centre.
The National Road (EN) 338, which connects Piornos and Manteigas, was closed to traffic, but reopened late Monday afternoon. However, traffic still remains conditioned to the circulation of light vehicles.
Difficulty in accessing
The second regional commander of the Civil Protection Center, Miguel Teixeira, explained, in the early hours of the morning, the size of the fire with the weather and the difficulty of access.
“The initial attack was the one that was appropriate at the time. O The reason was mainly related to the accesses, the accessibilities and the urography of the land, combined with wind weather and constant wind rotation. Rather than the number of operatives who at the time were what would be considered indicated”.
According to Miguel Teixeira, “we also have the weather with some wind rotation. The increase in intensity. The urography is the same and is maintained with great difficulty in the accesses”.
“This will be a time-consuming job for the operators”, he stressed.
Friends of Serra da Estrela criticize the form of combat
The Associação de Amigos da Serra da Estrela once again criticized the way in which the fire has been fought.
“In the circle I had there, it had to be covered by people on foot, there wouldn’t be that many. It was an easy system and even with some paths. So it was nothing, the difficulties that are often fed by the media to impress, because there can’t be roads everywhere, right?”, José Maria Saraiva, president of the association, told Antena 1.
“It was a situation that seemed very easy to us, but it didn’t happen. There was no one there, this analysis was not done; maybe because people thought they got up here and the fire ended up being extinguished, but it was a bad analysis, because knowing very well the relief that is there, we knew the type of corridor and the ease with which the fire would evolve, how evolved, either to the valley, or later to the Serra de Baixo, and consequently to the Zêzere valley”, he added.
Around 80 municipalities in the North and Center and North Alentejo interior are currently at maximum risk of rural fireaccording to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
According to the information available on the IPMA website, the municipalities that are at maximum risk are located in the districts of Bragança, Vila Real, Braga, Porto, Coimbra, Guarda, Viseu, Castelo Branco, Santarém and Portalegre.
The IPMA also placed around 50 municipalities in the districts of Viana do Castelo, Vila Real, Braga, Porto, Aveiro, Viseu, Coimbra, Leiria, Santarém, Castelo Branco, Portalegre and Faro, at very high risk of rural fire.
The fire risk, determined by the IPMA, has five levels, ranging from low to maximum and the calculations are obtained from the air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and amount of precipitation in the last 24 hours.
C/Lusa
