There are still "six hot spots" in the Monchique fire, but the areas of greatest concern today are «south of the Nave», «towards Casais» and «the Odelouca Dam area», just said Vítor Vaz Pinto, operational commander of the Civil Protection in the Algarve, at a press conference in Monchique.
The official said that this morning the air resources are again having difficulty operating, due to the great “turbulence”. There are "strong gust winds, which cause constraints at the operational level". "We have difficulties in combat due to the turbulence, which prevents the use of air resources", reinforced Vaz Pinto.
However, he assured, "it is not for lack of means that the extinction [of the fire] is not done sooner."
For his part, the Secretary of State for Civil Protection did not want to answer questions about the delay in a plan of development promoted by forest producers or about the accusations of the Association of Professional Firefighters.
The official said that "the priority is to fight the fire, safeguard people", urging everyone to "respect the guidelines of the authorities", namely those who are "removing people" or "cutting roads so that no one has access to risk areas ».
As for the number of houses, first-rate or not, destroyed by the flames, not even the mayor Rui André wanted to answer the questions. "We are still in combat action, we have to respond." “We are going to quantify the numbers later, for now I don't have precise numbers”, stressed the mayor.
At this moment, the flames, which spread over several spots and fronts, with constant reactivations and projections, are being fought by almost 1150 workers, supported by 334 vehicles and 16 aerial means, with difficulty in acting. These are six Fireboss planes, four Canadairs, four light/medium helicopters and one heavy helicopter. There is even a support plane.
In Monchique there are already operations from all over the country, from Viseu and Aveiro, as well as Spaniards.
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