Four volunteer firefighters from Arouca were injured, three of them seriously, after the fire truck they were travelling in left the road in the early morning of Wednesday. The accident occurred on a difficult-to-access forest track in Pedrógão, a locality belonging to the parish of Moldes, where an uncontrolled fire has been burning since Monday.
The alert was given around 4:00 in the morning. By 6:45, 15 personnel supported by six vehicles were already operating on site. A source from the Subregional Command for Emergency and Civil Protection of the Aveiro Region told the Lusa agency that the accident was caused by the steep terrain slopes.
The Arouca fire has four active fronts and keeps six villages in the line of fire, although for now there is no population at risk. The fire spreads through the parish of Moldes and through the Union of Parishes of Cabreiros and Albergaria da Serra. The mayor of Arouca told RTP that the mountainous area hampers the work of the deployed emergency response and stressed the importance of using air resources from the initial phase of firefighting.
Around 9:00, 480 personnel were operating in the municipality in Aveiro district, supported by around 160 vehicles and two air resources. Northern Portugal is the region most affected by fires, with multiple active fronts in Torre de Moncorvo, Santo Tirso, Monção and other localities. Temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius have intensified the spread of the flames, while humidity that arrived in the early morning hours provided some relief in certain areas.
