Spain faces two magnitude fires in the Valence region, while Serra Da Estrela fire, which burned 25,000 hectares in Portugal, is still not mastered.
Le Monde with AFP
Spain and Portugal are still trying, Wednesday, August 17, to overcome several forest fires which ravaged thousands of hectares, mobilizing hundreds of firefighters.
Spain has faced a wave of forest fires in recent weeks, favored by the rise in temperatures, especially in the province of Valence, in the east of the country. The fire that has been raging since Monday in Bejis, 70 kilometers northwest of Valence, experienced rapid progression, ravaging more than 10,000 hectares, and resulted in the evacuation of 1,500 people, according to regional officials. The firefighters of the province of Castellon published on Twitter a video testifying to the violence of the flames:
seguro that Habrás oído hablar of Incendios that, punished,
Superan The Capacidad of Extinción. Mira como los viv… https://t.co/zhvpplz5yq
About 200 kilometers further south, at the EBO Vall, the weather has offered a little respite to the hundreds of firefighters who have been fighting a major fire since Saturday. The rain and hail, which fell on an area where the flames ravaged more than 11,000 hectares, however nailed to the ground for fire -fighting aircraft and their teams.
destruction of Unique species in Portugal
In neighboring Portugal, Serra Da Estrela fire, where 90 % of the perimeter was declared controlled at midday, continues to concentrate “consolidation” efforts of the firefighters, said the Civil Protection Commander, Miguel Cruz, during a press briefing at the end of the day. More than 1,200 firefighters remained at work, supported by eight aircraft.
After being declared controlled last week, the fire was embraced on Monday. An investigation was opened to determine the causes. The fire, which has smoke some 25,000 hectares of this protected area, according to provisional estimates, is already the most important of this summer in Portugal.
The smell of burnt was felt until Madrid on Tuesday. This fire destroyed unique species in the park recognized by UNESCO, in the heart of the Serra Da Estrela mountain range, which culminates about 2,000 meters.
During the afternoon, another home concerned the emergency services in the region of Caldas da Rainha, in the center-west of the country, where a mobilized firefighter died of a heart attack.
New heat wave from Saturday
The objective of the firefighters is to manage to control the fire of Serra Da Estrela by Friday, before the temperatures date back again.
“We are not yet at the end of this critical period of fires”, warned José Luis Carneiro, Minister of the Interior, after a meeting with the Portuguese Institute of the Portuguese Institute on Wednesday. The sea and the atmosphere (IPMA). “We are going to enter a third heat wave” from Saturday, “which should continue until September”, a month which promises to be “warmer and drier” than normal, he asserted.
Portugal, which is experiencing an exceptional drought this year, has already known the hottest July for almost a century. Since the beginning of the year, 92,000 hectares have gone up in smoke, the most extensive area since the deadly fires of 2017, which had made a hundred victims, according to the latest assessment of the Institute for the Conservation of the nature and forests.