Fernando Pimenta resides atop a village situated on the slopes of the Alvão mountain range. He was found by a reporter standing with a hoe, observing the fire burning above.
“When it comes down here, it will give everyone a lot of work,” he commented.
This marks the 11th day since the fire began at 11:45 p.m. on August 2, having been under control at one point, but with two flare-ups since then, one on Saturday and another on Monday afternoon.
Since its inception, the fire has swept through more than 20 villages, snaking through the mountain range between the municipalities of Vila Real and Mondim de Basto.
On Monday night, it approached Testeira from below. Today, it threatens the village from above, while other flare-ups have been reported along the vast perimeter of the fire, including in Cravelas, with even new occurrences in the Vila Real region.
“It’s getting ugly. If it weren’t for the aerial resources, it would have been here already,” commented Fernando Pimenta, keeping his eyes on the area filled with undergrowth and small pine trees, likely regrown following previous wildfires. Among them stand 40 beehives.
On the previous day, Fernando Pimenta had to leave his work in the Campeã area due to the fire’s approach to his village, and today, he refrained from going to work altogether.
One of his concerns was his 11 donkeys, which he moved to a safe location from the fields where they grazed.
Living at the top of the village, where his house and warehouse are located, he knows the importance of staying alert. “When the fire truly approaches, it’s not easy, and this waiting is distressing because everything could go wrong,” he emphasized.
Aircraft and helicopters have been operating over the mountains since early, yet the effort seems futile as the flames continue their advance.
“The aerial resources are fine, but on the ground, all we have are small firefighting vehicles. They should send bigger trucks. What’s the point of sending them after the fire has passed? Yesterday [Monday], we struggled, and once the worst had passed, we saw no shortage of firefighters, big and small vehicles, everything you could think of,” he stated.
Testeira is a small village that fills with emigrants in the summer. Armando Rosa, who arrived a week ago, expressed concern mainly after nightfall, when aerial operations cease, highlighting the need to stay vigilant regarding the mountain.
The fire, he noted, revisits this mountain “every five to six years.” “It’s become a ritual,” he pointed out.
On Monday, Célia Pimenta used brooms to help extinguish flames approaching the village, but today she feels calm, seeing numerous firefighters around.
“I live at the bottom of the village, and I came up to see how the fire is. I’m quite relaxed, I trust the planes and firefighters, and I’m happy because there’s not much wind today, as opposed to the other day when it was horrific. We just have to see how this unfolds,” she remarked, noting that “everything is very dry.”
According to the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC), by 5:30 p.m., 422 personnel, 144 vehicles, and five aerial units were mobilized for this fire.
In another fire that broke out at 4:21 p.m. in Vila Cova, also in the Alvão mountain region of Vila Real, there were 25 personnel, five vehicles, and one aerial unit involved.
