Regional government head Ximo Puig has asked for a report from the firefighting services to make clear why the train was allowed to move during wildfires…
Each smartphone in Portugal has been sent a text alert about the dangerous risk of wildfires as the nation prepares for its third heatwave of the summer. The country has reached a state of alert, with temperatures likely to reach 38 °C and heavy winds expected in the future.
Portuguese Interior Minister Jose Luis Carneiro said, “The military forces would do more forest patrols on those days.” He also announced that the Civil Protection Agency will be provided extra funding to employ another 500 firefighters.
For now, four people were hospitalised in Spain’s Valencia after experiencing severe burns on Wednesday when many passengers attempted to jump off a train that had halted and attempted to go back between the surrounding flames. The train had accidentally headed into the fast-spreading wildfire.
Regional government head Ximo Puig has asked for a report from the firefighting services to make clear why the train was allowed to move through an area that was burning.
The text alerted those in rural areas to not start any kind of fire now. The government has also limited entry into forests and prohibited access to machinery to avoid sparks. The state of alert came into effect at midnight on Sunday and will remain till Tuesday.
Impact of Third Heatwave
Some 92,000 hectares of land have already burned this year due to heatwaves and drought creating burning situations, according to government estimates. In the Serra da Estrela district alone, fires in recent weeks have damaged at least 28,000 hectares, i.e., more than 25% of its total land.
Fires in Ourem and Leiria, to the north of the capital Lisbon, were brought under control on Saturday after they caused thousands of pounds of damage and hampered trains for at least six hours on Friday.
In adjacent Spain, a wildfire in the eastern region of Valencia is burning uncontrollably and has turned into one of the nation’s largest fires of the year. On Friday, as it arrived on its fifth day, 35 planes were sent to aim and bring it under control.
According to the European Commission’s Copernicus Earth Observation Program, Spain has been impacted heavily in comparison to any other European nation by forest fires this year. This year, wildfires in Spain have burned four times more land as compared to what they did during the last decade.
Until early August, 43 huge wildfires, those impacting more than 500 hectares, were registered in the Mediterranean country, although the average since records started in 2006.
