Wildfires raging in Spain and Portugal claim 4 lives
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Firefighters and local residents struggled yesterday to tackle raging wildfires that have consumed large swathes of forest in Portugal and Spain and cost the lives of four emergency workers.
“This cursed fire won’t give us a break and seems hellbent on destroying everything in its path,” said Manuel Pinto, a resident of Povoa in central Portugal, who was beating back the flames with a branch alongside exhausted firefighters.
A volunteer firefighter who tackled the same blaze as a female colleague killed last week in the mountains of central Portugal has died from his injuries, his commander said Tuesday.
The 23-year-old’s death brings the number of emergency responders killed in Portugal’s August fires to four.
More than 800 firefighters were mobilized in Portugal to tackle blazes, which intensified overnight due to high winds.
A spokesman for Portugal’s emergencies agency repeated his call for French support to remain in the country after two French planes were dispatched to drop water this week.
“The French mission is supposed to be completed Thursday, but we asked for an extension. We are waiting for a response,” said Miguel Cruz, spokesman for the Civil Protection Authority.
Two Spanish planes had also helped Portuguese authorities take on the fires but returned home at the weekend.
Cruz said Portugal would not ask Spain for more help because of their own “difficult situation,” as firefighters and water-dumping planes battled a wildfire in Spain’s northwest that drove residents from their homes, according to officials.
The blaze, one of hundreds to ravage Spain’s parched land over the summer, broke out late Monday near Oia, a village on the Atlantic coast near the border with Portugal.
Firefighters backed by aeroplanes and helicopters were battling to curb flames that ravaged 1,200 hectares, the regional government.
An alert was declared after the fire came close to some houses and residents were evacuated, an official in the Galicia region rural affairs ministry said, but no one was reported hurt.
“The situation has improved since last night,” the official said. “We are not aware of the fire reaching any houses, although there were evacuations.”
The official could not say how many people were evacuated but Spanish newspapers said the figure was at least 176.
Spain and Portugal are prone to summer forest fires because of soaring temperatures, strong winds and dry vegetation.
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