A large forest fire broke out this Sunday in the vicinity of Mafra, north of Lisbon, while temperatures rose sharply this weekend, especially in the north and center of the country, according to civil protection.
This forest fire, about forty kilometers north of Lisbon, was fought at the end of the afternoon by some 400 professionals and five aerial means, according to civil protection.
The neighbors tried to stop the advance of the flames by watering their gardens, while the fire advanced in the neighboring forests, according to the images broadcast on television.
A nursing home with 30 people was evicted as a preventive measure, Commander Paulo Santos, from the Civil Protection Authority, told Renascença radio.
red alert tuesday
Other major outbreaks were also wreaking havoc in northern and central Portugal, mobilizing more than a thousand firefighters. In Ourem (center), a river beach was preventively evacuated, according to a relief official quoted by the Lusa agency.
Part of the north and center of Portugal was put on alert this weekend in the face of “strong increases in temperature”, of more than 40 ° C, especially in the center, and this at least until Tuesday, according to the Portuguese Institute of Meteorology. .
The Minister of the Interior, José Luis Carneiro, indicated on Sunday night that it was planned to “give the red alert on Tuesday” due to the high risk of fire “for the districts of Vila Real, Bragança, Guarda and Viseu” (north).
Portugal, traumatized by the 2017 fires that killed more than a hundred people, was already hit in early July by a series of fires fueled by scorching temperatures.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 58,000 hectares have disappeared, according to data, still provisional, from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF).
Source: BFM TV
