“The night was terrible, the populations were outstanding and the firefighters were tireless, but it’s a day that begins dramatically,” especially in the southern area of the municipality, in Melres, with an active front “evolving towards the campsite, which will be evacuated,” said the mayor.
Speaking to journalists, Marco Martins reported that seven firefighters had to be assisted due to exhaustion and one, with more serious injuries, was operated on during the night, awaiting “a clinical evaluation of his condition.”
“We need help, I have many years of experience in this and we have never seen ourselves so left to our own devices, so alone, in the collective sense. The population is helping and we are trying to control it,” he emphasized.
For now, “there is no damage to housing, but there is a lot of damage to agricultural implements, support warehouses and workshops in the Jovim area, which burned down.”
“At the moment, two aerial resources are operating, two small planes with little capacity. We have proximity to the Douro River, which allows for more water drops, but it’s not enough. We are waiting for the international support that has arrived, with nine planes, to come to the North of the country,” he said.
The mayor insisted on his appeal: “We need seven or eight planes, at the moment what we have are two light aircraft to help those on the ground, and we also need relief for those on the ground. The fire departments have no more firefighters to relieve. And they are desperate.”
According to what he told journalists, there are “many firefighters in the Porto district being assisted for exhaustion, since only fire departments from the district are on the ground, and they are exhausting their capabilities.”
“We are doing what is possible with the means we have, Gondomar and the Porto district need help,” stressed Marco Martins, who is also president of the District Civil Protection Commission.
According to civil protection data, around 11:00 AM, 137 operatives, 37 ground vehicles, and two aerial resources were fighting the flames in Gondomar.
The data available on the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) page indicate that, in total, covering occurrences in resolution and non-significant ones, by 08:30 AM, there were 5,226 operatives, about 1,622 ground resources, and 19 aerial resources on the ground today.
Seven people have died and 40 have been injured, two seriously, in the fires that have been affecting the North and Center regions of the country since Sunday, in the districts of Aveiro, Porto, Coimbra, Vila Real, and Viseu, which have destroyed dozens of houses and forced the closure of roads and highways.
The burned area in mainland Portugal since Sunday exceeds 62,000 hectares, according to the European Copernicus system, which shows that 47,376 hectares have already burned in the North and Center regions.
The Government has already declared a state of calamity in all municipalities affected by the fires in recent days.