“It was a fire that left a trail of very high damages, both in agricultural fields and forests [pine groves], which now needs to be rigorously assessed, given the size of the burned area. Beekeeping was also an affected sector, as well as some agricultural warehouses,” António Santos explained to Lusa.
The mayor added that he hopes the damages caused by the fire that broke out on Saturday afternoon in the Union of Parishes of Caçarelhos and Angueira will be repaired with government support.
“We hope that the Government will provide support to minimize these damages caused by this fire,” emphasized the Social Democratic mayor.
António Santos said he had followed the evolution of the fire and explained that in São Martinho de Angueira, in the municipality of Miranda do Douro, commercial and agricultural warehouses burned down and need to be repaired.
The National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) today classified this fire as the largest recorded since January, with a provisional burned area of 2,182 hectares of land.
In the fire that broke out in the municipality of Vimioso, in the district of Bragança, about 625 operatives were involved over three days, supported by 207 vehicles, 11 bulldozers, and 17 Portuguese and Spanish aerial resources.
Regarding the fire that also broke out on Saturday in the municipality of Bragança, in the heart of the Montesinho Natural Park (PNM), Mayor Paulo Xavier said that in the three parishes affected by the fire, a complete survey of the damages is being carried out in conjunction with the parish presidents.
“The main damages that have been verified so far are to the chestnut groves, and only after these surveys will we know the real extent of the damages caused by the fire,” emphasized the mayor of Bragança.
In the PNM fire, 621 operatives, 217 vehicles, four bulldozers, and 12 aerial resources were involved over three days.
An official GNR source told Lusa that for now, all available data “are provisional,” explaining that “it is necessary to divide the burned area into forest, agricultural, and scrubland,” and that official data for these two fires in the Northeast Transmontano region will be released at the end of the week.
