The Iberian Peninsula is suffocating under the heat and smoke from the fires. In Portugal, a major fire has been burning for four days in the southwest. Nearly 900 firefighters supported by ten aircraft are mobilized in Odemira, near the southern Portuguese tourist region of the Algarve, where several thousand hectares have burned, according to initial estimates.
During the night of Monday to Tuesday, they “stabilized the perimeter” but “two critical points” will require “a lot of effort”, explained the commander of the Portuguese civil protection José Ribeiro during a press briefing. Inland, the inhabitants of around twenty villages and holidaymakers staying in rural tourism establishments had to be evacuated on Monday. Many of them have been received in a school that has been transformed into a reception centre. In total, nearly 1,500 people have been displaced since Saturday, while around 40, including 28 firefighters, have been taken care of by emergency medical services, civil protection said.
44°C expected in Spain
Another fire in the Leiria region, in the center, calmed down overnight after ravaging 7,000 hectares. Nearly 2,800 firefighters and 16 aircraft were mobilized Tuesday morning throughout Portugal. Temperatures are expected to drop slightly on Tuesday but still reach 40°C in places, after setting a record for 2023 (46.4°C) on Monday in central Santarem, according to a first estimate from the Portuguese meteorological agency. .
The alert is also maintained on both sides of the border. The south-west of Spain is on orange heat wave alert, and the region of Cordoba is even on red alert, synonymous with extreme danger, announced the Spanish meteorological agency (Aemet). Temperatures in Spain are expected to reach 44 ° C on Tuesday and especially Wednesday, the day when this heat wave, the third of the summer, will be at its maximum, underlined the Aemet.
The heat wave is expected to last until Thursday, with a dozen Spanish provinces on red alert on Wednesday in Andalusia, in the Madrid region, in Castile-La Mancha but also in the Basque Country and its surroundings. Last weekend, more than 1,000 hectares burned in Spain. A fourth major fire broke out on Monday afternoon in Extremadura, a neighboring region of Portugal, in the municipality of Valencia de Alcántara, without the firefighters managing to control it overnight.