Death toll could rise in Portugal wildfire
Fatal blazes have become increasingly severe and routine in the small country
NODEIRINHO, PORTUGAL— Constantino Gracieta and his wife were among the lucky ones. At first, they got in their car and tried to escape the advancing flames that swept across a vast, dry forest in central Portugal over the weekend.
But finding the road that cuts through their hamlet, Mosteiro, engulfed by fire, they turned back and began to hose down their house instead.
“People fought to save their houses,” Gracieta said. “I knew that, with the road completely cut and the whole forest on fire, firefighters were never going to get here quick enough to help us.”
At least 64 people were not as fortunate, perishing in the wildfire, many of them while in their cars trying to flee. With 135 people injured, the authorities warned that the death toll could still rise from the fire, which started Saturday, apparently ignited by lightning strikes.
Driving from Porto in the north on Monday, I entered a ravaged landscape of blackened ground that exhaled smoke and seemed to be struggling for breath. Every few miles, I passed burnt-out carcasses of cars on the side of the road. In what remained of a door frame, fresh pink flowers were laid in tribute to one car’s victims.
As I approached signposts on secondary roads, they offered their own testament to the extent of the disaster: Many had been melted by the heat.
Already, the fatalities have made the wildfire the worst in half a century in a small country where deadly blazes have become increasingly severe and routine, as long-standing land management problems collide with changes in climate that produce hotter, drier summers.
On Monday, crews were still struggling to tame the deadly blaze in central Portugal, even as more than 2,000 firefighters battled separate fires around the country amid strong winds and scorching temperatures.
Given those circumstances and the country’s history, some were already beginning to question why Portugal had not done more sooner to improve its land practices and firewarning systems, and whether the authorities did enough to inform people trying to escape the blaze.
For now, an atmosphere of national tragedy and mourning stifled much of the impulse for finger-pointing. Portugal’s political parties for the most part heeded a call by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to first deal with the emergency before discussing its circumstances.
“Now is the time for the authorities to act, not the time for politicians,” Pedro Passos Coelho, leader of the main centre-right opposition party, said over the weekend.