A total of 82 rural fires were recorded at the end of the morning (among the three types defined by Civil Protection: forest, scrubland and agricultural), in which 3,858 firefighters, 1,200 vehicles and 13 aerial resources were deployed.

Of the 82 incidents, 12 were considered significant (due to their size and/or duration) and, of these, four were already being resolved, two of which were in the municipality of Sever do Vouga, in the district of Aveiro, still occupying around 900 members of the emergency and security forces. Both started on Sunday.

The fires that broke out on Sunday afternoon in Palmaz, in the municipality of Oliveira de Azeméis - another of the biggest incidents in recent days, also in the district of Aveiro, which still involved more than 200 operatives - and on Monday afternoon, in Folhadal, in the municipality of Nelas, district of Viseu (in this case, around a hundred operatives remain on the ground) were also still under control.

Of the eight fires in forests and scrubland that were reported at around 12:00 as still ongoing (i.e. not under control) in the “significant incidents” recorded by ANEPC, two stood out in the municipality of Castro Daire, in the district of Viseu, with a total fire-fighting force of around 650 people, close to 200 vehicles and 12 aircraft.

Although the website indicates these two incidents in the municipality – one that started on Monday night in Soutelo and the other on Tuesday afternoon in Pinheiro – the mayor, Paulo Almeida, said at around 10:00 that there were around ten active fires in the territory, in an “extremely worrying” scenario. Of the 380 square kilometres of the municipality, according to the mayor, around 30 thousand hectares had burned.

Still in the district of Viseu, the fire that broke out in Miuzela, in the municipality of Penalva do Castelo, in the early hours of Monday morning (more than 260 firefighters and 60 vehicles mobilized) stood out, and, in the district of Vila Real, Civil Protection reported that fighting the flames involved around one hundred and fifty firefighters in the municipalities of Alijó and Vila Pouca de Aguiar, in fires that broke out on Tuesday.

More than 300 members of the emergency and security forces, with a hundred vehicles and three aircraft, were fighting the flames in Arouca (Viseu district, in an incident that started on Wednesday in Alvarenga) at 12:00, while in the Porto district, in fires that broke out on Tuesday in Santo Tirso (Monte Córdova) and Amarante (Carneiro), the force had more than 150 operatives and fifty vehicles on the ground, in addition to an aircraft.

Although at that time the Carneiro fire was included in the ongoing incidents, the municipal Civil Protection had previously told Lusa that the flames were under control and that surveillance operations were continuing, due to the occurrence of small rekindlings.

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