The damage caused directly to the inhabitants of Serra do Caldeirão by the fire that last week affected the municipalities of Tavira and São Brás de Alportel exceeds 25 million euros, in both municipalities. These figures are only preliminary numbers and the economic consequences of the catastrophe could be more profound.
The mayors of Tavira and São Brás, Jorge Botelho and António Eusébio, were yesterday, Tuesday, in Lisbon to meet with an inter-ministerial commission to support forest fire victims. A meeting that served to make an initial assessment and which will continue tomorrow, with another meeting with members of the Government, taking place in the Regional Coordination and Development Commission of the Algarve.
According to the mayor of São Brás, the losses in the municipality, between direct losses and forest wealth, are close to 15 million euros. “We are talking about 60 families directly affected, with more than 55 people. Ten houses burnt down completely, while fifteen burned down partially, as well as XNUMX outbuildings», he revealed to the Sul Informação the mayor of sambrasense.
In this field, the first survey points to losses in the order of "million and a half euros in goods", that is, in the built heritage, in the contents and in immovable property that the fire took away.
Looking at what was lost, in terms of forests, the damage is much greater, approaching 13 million euros. António Eusébio stressed that this is “a highly extrapolated estimate, which will be five times below the real value”, for technical reasons. A value that assumes that this would be “the year to remove cork”.
"The family economy of hundreds of families, not to mention thousands, as there are thousands of owners, has been greatly reduced, if not completely destroyed," he said. «Almost the entire area of Serra de São Brás was burned», he added. This county has a total area of 15 thousand hectares and 7162 hectares were burned in last week's fires, corresponding to “46 percent of the county's total territory”.
In Tavira, the damages certainly exceed ten million euros, according to Jorge Botelho, and only a preliminary survey was carried out. Here, the burnt area was much more extensive than in the neighboring county, with 19 thousand hectares lost to fire.
At yesterday's meeting, a course of action was already agreed. In a first phase, “help will be made available to meet the basic needs of those who need it as soon as possible” and then “understand what the needs in terms of accommodation are”.
"The third phase has to do with reforestation and the recovery of the territory", added António Eusébio, who, at this moment, still has "no idea" of the costs that could be associated with the renovation of the burned area.
"There is also a lot of work that has to be thought out to prevent problems that may arise", defended the mayor. One of the mayor's concerns is linked to the autumn rains, "sometimes torrential", which, if there is no intervention on the ground, "can lead to land subsidence, floods and water pollution", namely the streams and dams that supply the Eastern Algarve.
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