“At night, we were engaged in firefighting, trying to resolve all the issues we had, and in the early morning, we received our due reward – the fire is now under control. We are only controlling some reactivations that are occurring,” Filipe Lopes, commander of the Carregal do Sal fire department, told Lusa news agency.
“I wanted to see if from today we could start to mop up and normalize the situation,” he added.
The flames in Carregal do Sal originated from the Folhadal fire in Nelas, then crossed the Mondego River and spread to the municipality of Tábua, in the district of Coimbra, although the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) marked Tábua as a new occurrence.
According to data from the European Copernicus system, consulted by Lusa, the fire that started in Nelas and spread to Carregal do Sal and Tábua burned more than 8,000 hectares of forest.
Around 12:30 today, the Nelas fire remained ongoing on the ANEPC page, with a total of 191 operatives supported by 55 vehicles.
