Portugal counts the cost of its biggest ever forest fire

LISBON: Nearly 1,000 firefighters remained mobilised on Monday in central Portugal to prevent flare-ups of what authorities said was the biggest forest fire the country has seen -- ravaging an area more than 10 times bigger than Manhattan island. The blaze was only brought under control on Sunday after raging for 11 days and having burned 64,451 hectares, National Civil Protection Authority spokesman Commander Telmo Ferreira said.
That made it the largest fire ever recorded in Portugal, according to the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF). The previous biggest was 53,000 hectares devastated by a forest fire in October 2017.
The blaze covered seven municipalities in Coimbra, Guarda, and Castelo Branco districts and was caused by lightning strikes, officials said. Ferreira said authorities still had nearly 1,000 firefighters and 300 vehicles on 'surveillance operations' Monday though the numbers were expected to be gradually reduced. Monday brought some respite as the civil protection system recorded no fresh outbreaks from a summer which has seen Portugal and neighbouring Spain suffer a slew of fires.
Since July, forest fires have killed four people in Portugal, destroyed homes and crops, and ravaged some 278,000 hectares, according to European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) data. Portugal's worst year was in 2017, when more than 563,000 hectares were burned in wildfires that killed 119 people, according to EFFIS records.
The government has announced a number of emergency measures to help affected areas, including funding for the reconstruction of destroyed homes and aid for farmers. The Iberian Peninsula has been severely affected by climate change, which is causing longer and more intense heatwaves, according to experts.
A 16-day heatwave Spain suffered this month was 'the most intense on record', the national meteorological agency said. With forest fires still burning across northern and western Spain, the AEMET meteorological agency said provisional readings for the August 3-18 heatwave exceeded the last record, set in July 2022, and showed an average temperature 4.6C higher than previous events.
The August heatwave exacerbated tinderbox conditions that have fuelled wildfires which have killed four people and forced thousands out of their homes. More than 1,100 deaths in Spain have been linked to the August heatwave, according to an estimate released on Tuesday by the Carlos III Health Institute. The institute had already said that 1,060 deaths in July could be attributed to excess heat, a 50 per cent rise on the figure for July 2024. Since it began keeping records in 1975, AEMET has registered 77 heatwaves in Spain, with six going 4C or more above the average.
Fires burning in northern regions have destroyed more than 350,000 hectares in the past weeks and a record of more than 400,000 hectares since the start of the year. Authorities say they are only now starting to control the fires. Firefighters and water-bombing planes from nine European countries have been helping Spanish emergency services. — AFP