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Villagers, firefighters battle huge blazes in central Portugal

21 July 2019 23:07 (UTC +04:00)

As flames closed in on villages in central Portugal on Sunday afternoon, locals were forced to take matters into their own hands, protecting their homes from huge wildfires with buckets of water and hosepipes as strong winds fanned the blaze, APA reports quotng Reuters.

Two of the three wildfires which broke out on Saturday in Castelo Branco, a district 225 kilometers (139 miles) northeast of Lisbon, are still burning. Having spread to the nearby Santarem district, they are now threatening several villages in the Vila de Rei and Macao municipalities.

More than 1,150 firefighters are on the ground, according to the National Authority for Civil Protection. However, a Reuters photographer in Vila de Rei said the sight of firefighters was rare and the wildfire there was spreading.

Authorities have evacuated villages and fluvial beaches as a precaution and 20 people — twelve civilians and eight firefighters — have been injured. One is in a serious condition and remains hospitalized with first and second degree burns.

The fires stirred memories of a devastating wildfire in the central town of Pedrogao Grande in June 2017, the worst disaster in modern Portuguese history, which killed 64 people and injured more than 250.

“The fire is out of control, without resources on the ground, and the population at risk,” Vasco Estrela, the mayor of Macao, told Portuguese radio station TSF. “We never thought we would live through this again.”