The "next hours will be fundamental" to finally control the fire in Monchique, which already has "70% of its perimeter dominated", but still maintains "a front evolving to the south", he told the Sul Informação Richard Marques, Operational Commander of the Algarve Fire Department.
"We hope that now, that we have all the means on the ground and with the help of the nine aerial means, we can, in the shortest period of time, control the situation," he added.
Richard Marques also said that today "three military platoons of the army" went into the field, which took care of the consolidation operations, "freeing the means for combat in the most worrying areas".
After the fire, which started about 24 hours ago, on the northern slope of the Serra de Monchique, rose to Fóia and moved to the southern slope, the concern of firefighters and other civil protection forces has today been that of protect the many scattered houses that exist in the area near Casais and Marmelete.
Elderly people and others with reduced mobility were also removed from their homes, as a precaution, and placed in the homes of relatives, added commander Richard Marques.
"In anticipation, we decided to remove some people as a precaution, namely the most vulnerable, which are the elderly and people with reduced mobility," he said.
Richard Marques said that, at the height of the combat, 401 operational personnel were on the ground, supported by 127 vehicles, nine air assets (four planes and five helicopters) and also six crawler machines.
It was with these crawling machines that the firefighters were able to open “penetration structures”, that is, accesses, to take the means of combat on land to the most difficult areas of the mountain range.
In the fire that started yesterday at 17:08 pm, on the north slope, the firefighters did not even have the usual help from the milder temperatures of the night. "Last night, we had a very severe weather situation, with a temperature of 30ºC, 15% relative humidity and increased wind", explained the operational commander of the Algarve, a situation that only made the work of fighting the flames more difficult.
Now, thanks to the reinforcement of resources on the ground, in what is considered by the National Civil Protection Authority as the most serious fire in the country, «the next few hours will be of continuation of the work», hopefully with good results. results.
With an active front, the fire, which started at 17:08 pm on Saturday, on the northern slope of the Monchique mountains, in the Fóia area, is now raging in an area of woods and eucalyptus, now on the southern slope, near Marmelete.
The fire fighting has the help of reinforcement groups from Évora, Beja, Lisbon and corporations from all over the Algarve.
The fire in the Fóia area will have been probably fired by the man who was arrested yesterday by the GNR, in the act.
Yesterday, the 2nd operational commander of the Algarve Relief Operations Abel Gomes had told the Sul Informação which there was "a generalized situation of fires".
The first one exploded in Porto de Lagos, still in the municipality of Portimão, followed by many others, in Caldas de Monchique, which the firefighters were fighting as they could, and who “climbed” up the Serra to Fóia. This is where the arsonist was stopped.
photos: Nelson Inácio |Sul Informação
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