The damage caused by the fire that broke out at the beginning of August in the municipality of Castelo Branco exceeds 394,000 euros, a figure that excludes the values resulting from the 1,203 hectares of burnt area, the mayor said today.
“The [provisional damage] report will be sent to the government so that we can have compensation and a strategy for recovering the burnt areas,” Castelo Branco mayor Leopoldo Rodrigues told Lusa.
According to the provisional damage report for the municipality of Castelo Branco, resulting from the rural fire that started in Carrascal on the 4th, areas of the parishes of Sarzedas and Santo André das Tojeiras were affected, the latter being the hardest hit, with a total of 10 localities affected by the flames.
In the parish of Sarzedas, two towns were affected, Carrascal and Sobrainho da Ribeira.
Leopoldo Rodrigues said that the Municipal Civil Protection Service had held three meetings with the population and a multidisciplinary team had been set up to obtain data on all the damage resulting from the fire, as well as advising the inhabitants of the affected villages on the procedures to follow if there is support to respond to the damage.
“Let’s see if we have any support from the government,” he said.
The mayor also emphasized the importance of the buffer strips around the villages.
“We had several localities threatened and we saw the importance of the safety strips around the villages that allowed people and property to be safeguarded and prevented greater harm,” said Leopoldo Rodrigues.
According to the report, the sum of the damage found was based on the registration made by 53 property owners, mainly in the parish of Santo André das Tojeiras.
In total, in terms of the death of animals, the need to restore productive capital on farms, damage to buildings and the road network, the amount calculated is 394,339 euros, which does not include the 1,203 hectares of burnt area, of which around 917 hectares are maritime pine.
The fire that broke out on the 4th in the municipality of Castelo Branco progressed to the municipality of Proença-a-Nova and was resolved two days later.
According to the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), the rural fires recorded in Odemira and Castelo Branco at the beginning of August represent more than half of the total area burned in Portugal by 2023.
According to the ICNF’s most recent statistics, which include the first half of August, Portugal has recorded 27,802 hectares of burnt area and 6,085 rural fires since January 1 this year, which is the second lowest number of fires and the fourth lowest in terms of burnt area since 2013.
The fire that broke out in São Teotónio, in the municipality of Odemira, on August 5, is the largest recorded in Portugal this year, consuming at least 7,530 hectares of land, while the fire in Sarzedas, in the municipality of Castelo Branco, also this month, led to a total of 6,553 hectares of burned area in the municipalities of Castelo Branco and Proença-a-Nova.