About 1.400 people have already been “preventively displaced” due to the fire that broke out on Saturday in Odemira (Beja district) and that during this afternoon advanced 1.257 hectares per hour, according to Civil Protection.
In a point of situation to journalists by 19:30, at the command post in São Teotónio – parish where the rural fire started, in the Baiona area -, the regional commander of Emergency and Civil Protection of Alentejo, José Ribeiro, said that 125 animals were also displaced and that 22 people received medical assistance, all in “minor situations”.
Of these 22 people, four (three firefighters and one civilian) were treated in hospital and 18 (14 firefighters and four civilians) were assisted at the scene.
Cases of fatigue and anxiety were involved, he specified.
According to José Ribeiro, the fight against the flames – which this afternoon entered Odeceixe, in the Algarve municipality of Aljezur – has been carried out in “very difficult conditions”, due to the rotation and intensity of the wind.
“The rate of expansion of the fire between 12:00 and 17:00 was 1,257 hectares per hour and we have at this stage an area of interest of the theater of operations in the region of 6,700 hectares,” he said.
