Firefighters battle to control blaze
LISBON: Firefighters in Portugal said yesterday they were close to bringing under control a major wildfire that killed 64 people in the central area of the country.
More than 1,000 firefighters and nine water-dropping aircraft were battling the blaze in Pedrogao Grande, which was raging for a third consecutive day. The Civil Protection Agency said it hoped to contain the flames yesterday, though temperatures were forecast to reach 43 degrees Celsius and gusting winds remained a threat.
Government officials say Prime Minister Antonio Costa has ordered an investigation into what happened on Saturday night, when the deaths occurred.
Many victims were burnt as they were trapped in their cars around the epicentre of the blaze in Pedrogao Grande, in what is the deadliest such disaster in Portugal’s recent history.
“The fire has reached a level of human tragedy that we have never seen before,” said a visibly moved Mr Costa, who announced three days of mourning from Sunday.
Portugal’s national Route 236 was transformed into “a road of hell” where 47 of the fatalities occurred as the ferocious blaze ripped through the wooded countryside. Most of them were families who had spent the afternoon at a beach on a nearby river, local authorities said.
As firefighters continued their grim search for bodies, local residents, too, have stepped in to try to stop the blaze. In the small village of Atalaia Fundeira, a big cloud of smoke billowed from a scrub of land as villagers including 76-year-old Palmira Coelho rushed out with buckets of water and a tractor arrived with a tank of water and hose. After 10 minutes of frantic activity, the fire was largely extinguished, leaving charred ground in its wake.
“I have witnessed a lot of fires, but never like this, it’s never happened here — the way it spread, the speed,” said Betty Jesus, a 50-year-old Venezuelan who has lived in the area for decades.
In the village of Figueiro, people are still traumatised by the swift moving blaze. “The fire didn’t spread by the ground... it spread through the air at the height of the trees... in five minutes all were on fire in an area of around 10 kilometres,” said Virgilio Godinho.
Police chief Almeida Rodrigues blamed dry thunderstorms for the blaze which broke out on Saturday in Pedrogao Grande, ruling out arson. “We found the tree hit by the lightning,” he said.
“Everything burnt very quickly given the strong winds. The flames passed within two or three kilometres of my house,” said local resident Isabel Ferreira, 62.
“It was really hell. I thought the end of the world had come,” said Maria de Fatima Nunes, another survivor.
The wooded hills in the area north of Lisbon, which 24 hours before had glowed bright green with eucalyptus and pine trees, were gutted by the flames. Along the IC-8 highway cutting through the fire zone, smoke was still rising from the ground and small pockets of fire burned among the charred, black tree stumps.
One road running through Pedrogao Grande was littered with burnt-out cars. At one spot, a police officer watched over the covered body of a victim of the fire. Other bodies were found in houses in isolated areas.