The fires that devastate Portugal have caused the death of two people in the Vila Real region (north), Civil Protection announced this Monday.
“It’s a traffic accident, the vehicle left the road in the Murça fire area,” said Portuguese civil protection commander André Fernandes during a situation point without further details.
“We found the car of these two people, about 70 years old, completely charred, the couple died inside their vehicle,” the mayor of Murça, Mario Artur Lopes, told the SIC Noticias television channel. “They were at their house in the town of Penabeice and reportedly decided to flee when the flames approached their house,” he added.
44,000 hectares devastated
Despite more favorable weather conditions in recent days, including cooler temperatures, more than 1,000 firefighters were still mobilized Monday night to combat six major outbreaks in northern Portugal. On Friday, a seaplane fighting forest fires crashed near Vila Nova de Foz Coa, in the Guarda region (north), killing the pilot, its sole occupant.
Portugal has suffered a series of fires since July 8, coinciding with the arrival of a great heat wave, which has already consumed tens of thousands of hectares of vegetation.
Since the beginning of 2022, nearly 44,000 hectares of forest have been destroyed by flames in Portugal, according to provisional data published this Monday by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF). According to ICNF, the area burned this year is the largest since 2017, a year marked by deadly fires that killed around 100 people.
Source: BFM TV
