Hundreds of firefighters are fighting Tuesday, August 8 against a fire that has been raging for four days in the south-west of Portugal, plagued like its Spanish neighbor to an episode of intense heat wave which puts most of the Iberian peninsula on alert. Nearly 900 firefighters supported by ten aircraft are mobilized in Odemira, near the southern Portuguese tourist region of the Algarve, where several thousand hectares have burned, according to initial estimates.
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, they “stabilized the perimeter” but “two critical points” will require “a lot of effort”, explained the commander of the Portuguese civil protection José Ribeiro during a press briefing.
Inland, the inhabitants of around twenty villages and holidaymakers staying in rural tourism establishments had to be evacuated on Monday. Many of them have been received in a school that has been transformed into a reception centre.
In total, nearly 1,500 people have been displaced since Saturday, while around 40, including 28 firefighters, have been taken care of by emergency medical services, civil protection said. Another large fire, in the Leiria region of central Portugal, calmed down overnight from Monday to Tuesday, after ravaging around 7,000 hectares.
Record the 46.4°C
Nearly 2,800 firefighters and 16 aircraft were mobilized Tuesday morning throughout Portugal. Temperatures are expected to drop slightly on Tuesday but still reach 40°C in places, after setting a record for 2023 (46.4°C) on Monday in central Santarem, according to an initial estimate from the Portuguese meteorological agency. .
The state of alert is maintained on both sides of the border, the south-west of Spain being on orange vigilance on Tuesday, with the province of Cordoba, in Andalusia, on red alert, synonymous with extreme danger, announced the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet). Temperatures in Spain are expected to reach 44 ° C on Tuesday and especially Wednesday, the day when this heat wave, the third of the summer, will be at its maximum, underlined the Aemet.
The heat wave is expected to last until Thursday, with a dozen Spanish provinces on red alert on Wednesday, in Andalusia, in the Madrid region, in Castile-La Mancha but also in the Basque Country and its surroundings. Last weekend, more than 1,000 hectares burned in Spain. A fourth major fire broke out on Monday afternoon in Extremadura, a neighboring region of Portugal, in the municipality of Valencia de Alcantara, without the firefighters managing to control it overnight.
The Iberian Peninsula is on the front line in the face of global warming in Europe, with an increase in episodes of heat waves, drought and fires. Nearly 100,000 hectares have already gone up in smoke in 2023 in Spain and Portugal, according to provisional reports, against more than 400,000 in total in 2023.
