Crews finally corral Portugal blaze
Flames fed by forests that sustain livelihoods
MACAO, Portugal — Firefighters in Portugal on Tuesday brought a huge wildfire under control after the blaze raged for four days, injuring 39 people and leaving a trail of destruction.
About 1,000 firefighters were keeping watch over smoldering hot spots in the fire-prone area, amid gusting winds and temperatures close to
104 degrees, Civil Protection Agency commander Luis Belo Costa said.
Hilly terrain and dense pine and eucalyptus forests had slowed the emergency response to the fire, centered on the district of Castelo Branco, about 125 miles northeast of Lisbon, Belo Costa said.
In the aftermath, dozens of charred houses, farm buildings and burnedout vehicles punctuated the picturesque landscape.
These hillsides, coated with the deep green of forests, draw tourists every summer. But they have long been vulnerable to fire.
Experts say Portugal needs to develop a more diversified “mosaic” of tree species, some of them more fire-resistant than pine and eucalyptus.
But those trees provide livelihoods for local people, who earn cash from logging and allied businesses.
Eucalyptus also goes to Portugal’s important paper pulp industry, which last year posted sales worth $3 billion.
Around Macao, a town of some 2,000 people, 53-year-old Fernando Fernandes wanted to save his pine trees, but he and his wife were fortunate to escape with their life as the flames bore down.
Wildfires are a common summer scourge in these parts.
In the nearby area of Vila de Rei, a town of around 3,000 people near where this week’s blaze began, wildfires in 1986 and 2003 charred some 80 percent of the local forest, snatching away many livelihoods, according to the local parish council.
Those disasters prompted many young people to leave the area, the parish council says. Nowadays, onethird of Vila de Rei’s population is older than 65. Many have neither the strength nor the financial means to keep the woodlands clean of fire-fueling debris.
Portugal, a victim of its poor forest management, has long been the southern European country where most wildfires occur.
Climate change has become another challenge for the country, bringing hotter, drier and longer summers.
Since 2010, the country has witnessed on average some 20,000 wildfires a year of varying sizes.
At least 106 people were killed in Portugal’s worst fire season in 2017.