Morocco mobilized Canadair water carrying planes on Wednesday to help Portugal combat devastating wildfires that began raging across the central and northern regions of the country over the weekend killing seven people.
According to André Fernandes, the commander of the National Civil Protection, three firefighters, two women and a man, were trapped by the flames near Nelhas in the Viseu region in northern Portugal.
Duarte Costa, a Portuguese politician and co-chair of the party Volt Portugal, said, “We are facing a dire situation, operating at the limits of our capabilities, and therefore, we are requesting support from the European Union, Spain, and Morocco.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, around 4,200 firefighters were working to extinguish nearly 50 wildfires fueled by strong winds. Approximately 50 people have now been injured or burned.
Mario Silvestre, a civil protection official, stated that the most worrying area is a “group of four fires” with a combined perimeter of over 100 kilometers, raging in the Aveiro region in the north.
The fires have also closed two major railway lines and parts of the main road between Lisbon and Porto.
The unprecedented fires are a result of what Jorge Ponte of the meteorology agency IPMA described as “one of the worst days ever” for fire risk in Portugal, he told Reuters.
A mix of high temperatures topping 30 degrees Celsius and wind speeds reaching 70 kilometers an hour created “a cocktail of dangerous conditions,” he said.
Ponte added that the situation is likely to improve by Wednesday afternoon thanks to the intervention of Morocco and the EU civil protection mechanism. Additionally, a chance of showers on Thursday may aid the firefighters in taming the blazes.
The additional support from Morocco will bolster the efforts of the 5,000 firefighters and 21 aircraft now deployed to battle the fires which are the most severe in years.