“At present, the fire is somewhat stabilized, meaning we have two fronts that are not progressing much, but of course, we have many hot spots and some reactivations,” stated the deputy regional commander of the Centre at 21:15.
Jody Rato pointed out that “there is still one active front causing greater concern in the Cedovim, Muxagata [municipality of Vila Nova de Foz Côa] and Mêda area,” in the district of Guarda.
“There is another front in the Ferreirim area [municipality of Sernancelhe, district of Viseu], in the Vilar reservoir area, also active, with some concern, but the greatest concern is Cedovim, which is about three to four kilometers,” he stated.
The commander added that “it was precisely this front where the major work of the day was concentrated,” noting that “the strategy has been fruitful and has resulted as planned.”
He continued by saying, “the aim was to keep it stable until the end of the day so that during the night, we could close these fronts as much as possible, so we can start tomorrow [Sunday] with only reactivations as a concern.”
“Let’s see if we can do it. Let’s see how the night goes,” he emphasized.
Throughout today, noted Jody Rato, “seven minor injuries have been recorded, all firefighters, some with burns and others in a small accident where the vehicle overturned,” but “fortunately nothing too significant.”
“Overall, this fire has so far resulted in 39 minor injuries, 18 assisted. Of these 39, 21 are operational personnel, and the remaining 18 are civilians,” he stated.
This fire originated from two fires – Sátão (district of Viseu) and Trancoso (district of Guarda) – and on Friday became one, spreading to 11 municipalities across the two districts.
The 11 municipalities are: Sátão, Sernancelhe, Moimenta da Beira, Penedono, and São João da Pesqueira (district of Viseu); Aguiar da Beira, Trancoso, Fornos de Algodres, Mêda, Celorico da Beira, and Vila Nova de Foz Côa (district of Guarda).
The Vila Boa fire, in the Ferreira de Aves parish, Sátão, was alerted at 01:03 on Wednesday, reaching the municipalities of Sernancelhe, also in the Viseu district, and Aguiar da Beira, in the Guarda district, on the same day.
An alert for the Freches fire in the Trancoso municipality, Guarda district, was issued a week ago, on the 9th, at 17:21.
The official website of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) displays the resources distributed by the two originating fires.
By 21:40, 835 operational personnel supported by 278 vehicles were mobilized in Sátão, and in Trancoso, there were 428 personnel with 143 vehicles.
In total, the fire mobilized 1,263 operational personnel, supported by 421 vehicles.
