Presidential candidate Luís Marques Mendes described the wildfires that affected the country last month as a “calamity, a nightmare, a tragedy,” also advocating for a “public tribute to Portuguese firefighters,” whom he referred to as “the real soldiers of peace.”
“The first major conclusion is that all of this is a calamity. The country knows it, it already knew it, but it is indeed a calamity, a nightmare, a tragedy. The second conclusion to be drawn from this fire [Arganil] is that we should not generalize,” he stated to SIC Notícias in Arganil, in the district of Coimbra, one of the areas most affected by the fires.
He added, “We often say: There is no forest management, no forest cleaning, and in many cases, it’s true. But, for example, here, in this location that I decided to visit, there is a beautiful project from four years ago by the municipality of Arganil, Jerónimo Martins, and the Agricultural School of Coimbra, a forest management project. Scientifically a very correct project, but it failed.”
Marques Mendes noted that the project “failed” because “the weather conditions and the fires were very aggressive.” “Here one cannot talk about forest management failure.”
“The third conclusion I draw, I think for the future—which is the important part now—is that we should take good examples, and this project was a good example, and try to replicate it in other parts of the country,” he emphasized.
The candidate for President stressed that “in this regard, there must be greater integration between central and local governments,” noting that, in matters of prevention and forest management, “the intervention of municipalities is very important, even in the realm of combat.”
“There is yet another conclusion I wanted to draw today that concerns firefighters. All of this was a calamity, but if it weren’t for the firefighters’ actions, the calamity would probably have been much larger. I think at this moment a word of thanks to the Portuguese firefighters is in order,” he highlighted.
Luís Marques Mendes also noted that “the fire season is not over yet” and that “we are not free from fires” during September, but he believes a “public tribute to Portuguese firefighters” is justified.
“If the President of the Republic takes the initiative to timely arrange a public tribute to Portuguese firefighters, I believe the entire country will be grateful and will applaud because, in a war the country fought against fire, they were the true soldiers of peace”, he emphasized.
Arganil Fire Records Largest Burned Area Ever
The fire that began in Piódão, in the municipality of Arganil (district of Coimbra), which was brought under control on Sunday after 11 days, has a burned area of 64,451 hectares, according to the provisional national report from the Forest Fire Information Management System (FGIMS) of the ICNF, accessed by the Lusa agency.
The report, with the last update on burned area made on Sunday, confirms that this fire has the largest burned area ever recorded in Portugal, surpassing the previous record of the fire that started in Vilarinho, in the municipality of Lousã, in October 2017, which reached 53,000 hectares.
The fire that broke out in Arganil on the 13th records the largest burned area ever in Portugal, with 64,000 hectares consumed, according to the provisional report from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF).
Lusa | 09:40 – 25/08/2025
