Massive wildfires across Portugal. 36 killed, 55 injured.

[Mike88]

A massive forest fire has gone out of control in Pedrógão Grande, Leiria District. According to the Interior minister, and the mayor of Pedrógão Grande, 19 people have died, 3 from smoke inhalation and 16 trapped in cars in a road near the city. According to the mayor, many parishes are surrounded by the fire and the death toll could double. Political parties have suspended campaign events, the President is on the site of the fire with the interior minister, the PM is in meetings with fire fighters and help officials and the PSD leader, Passos Coelho, asked for a minute of silence in respect to the victims after cutting short a rally in Ansião.

This is already the worst forest fire in Portugal's history.

Live coverage here: Link

BBC news is also reporting.

Some photos from the scene:

[Mike88]

The Prime Minister just announced that the death toll has risen to 24!! Dear God!

[Mike88]

Update this morning:

The death toll has reach 58 and 54 are injured. The fire is still out of control!!

I've never seen anything like this... My God!!

[Tender Branson]

Like the London fire, that's just horrible.

It always reminds me of the Kaprun fire disaster (2 miles from where I live) back in 2000, where 155 people were killed when they went skiing and the train up the mountain caught fire in the tunnel. My sister was one of the Red Cross first responders back then and the situation was really hard to bear for everyone.

[Mike88]

It just horrible, Tender. Yesterday afternoon this was just another forest fire that appears for a few minutes on the news but then everything went out of control... God!! 

Update: The death toll continues to rise. At the moment 62 people have died and 54 are injured.

And the first signs of criticism for the handling of this tragedy are starting to show. Many specialists and pundits on TV, don't understand why the roads weren't closed early on and Expresso newspaper main editor, Nicolau Santos, is already asking for the dismissal of the interior minister, Constança Urbano de Sousa.

Adding also, the government approved 3 days of national mourning and both PS and PSD have cancelled all campaign events schedule for this week.

[Mike88]

Update on this massive forest fire:

The fire is still active and has spread to the neighbor districts of Coimbra and Castelo Branco; The death toll has stabilized on 62 but the number of injured has risen to 135; Of the 62 victims, 24 have already been identified; Spain and France have sent airplanes to help in the combat of the fire.

More here: Link.

[Santander]

Horrifying.

[DavidB.]

Terrible Stay safe. Praying for the people in Portugal.

[Mike88]

Horrifying.

We never had anything in this scale... It just horrible, horrible 

Update:

Sadly the death toll has risen to 63 and the number of injured has also risen to 136. The latest causality is a firefighter who was in hospital in serious condition.

[DavidB.]

This is what the EU should be for. More countries should send firefighters.

[Mike88]

This is what the EU should be for. More countries should send firefighters.

Many countries are sending help as we speak. Spain has send airplanes, firefighters and army soldiers, France and Italy have also sent airplanes and i believe firefighters from both these countries are on their way to Portugal. The fire is massive and it is very difficult to reach certain points because of low visibility even from air.

Here's a satelite photo of the length of the fire:

[Mike88]

Update:

This is devastating. The death toll has risen to 64 while the number of injured has stabilized at 136.
The lastest causality is a man who was found dead in his house in the parish of Pobrais. In Pobrais, a parish of a population of 30, 11 people died (37% of the parish population).

Right now there are 2.150 firefighters in the fire site.

[Mike88]

Update:

The fire continues to be out of control and it has spread to Goís municipality in Coimbra district. Many parishes are being evacuated right now as the fire commander from Coimbra district says that they don't have the means to fight the fire. Dear God!!!

[Mike88]

The number of injured has risen to 160, with 7 in very critical condition. Also, the fire in Goís is becoming out of control. A total of 18 small villages have been evacuated, plus Portugal has also asked for help from Marroco and the Marroco government will send a Canadair airplain even today.

The fire in Pedrógão is also restarting... 

[Mike88]

Tragic news!!

One of the Canadair airplanes, that was helping the fire combat, has apparently crashed in Pedrógão Grande. INEM ambulances are on their way to the site.

Also, 40 small villages have already been evacuated.

[Mike88]

Tragic news!!

One of the Canadair airplanes, that was helping the fire combat, has apparently crashed in Pedrógão Grande. INEM ambulances are on their way to the site.

Also, 40 small villages have already been evacuated.

Looking at the TV coverage right now, it's utter chaos 

The portuguese government doesn't confirm that a plane has crashed while Portuguese and Spanish media say that a plane has infact crashed. People in the village where the plane crashed  say that something indeed crashed. God!! 

[Mike88]

Update:

The number of injured has risen to 204. The fire is still active but the lowering of temperatures expected for today may help extinguish the fire. At the same time, the cause of the fire is creating a huge debate. After the government and the police said that, with high certainty, the fire was caused by dry lightning, the mayor of Pedrógão Grande and now the President of the firefighters league, Jaime Marta Soares, believe the fire has criminal hand.

Also, the governments response in on the spotlight and the optics aren't good. Yesterday the PM told TVI that the road 236-1, where 37 people died, wasn't closed because everything was so sudden but his secretary of Internal affairs said to TSF radio that the police ensured him the closure of the road.

[Mike88]

Update:

The fire in Pedrógrão is finally stabilized. However the fire in Goís is still active and it may take some hours to control it. With the fire in Pedrógão control, help officials can now go to the ground an analyse it. There's still some fear that more bodies could be found as the Interior minister doesn't know the exact number of people missing, but let's hope not. 

A minute of silence was held today in honour of the victims. Autopsies for all victims are already done and the first funerals were held today. All party leaders, plus the PM and PR attended the funeral of the firefighter who died rescuing a family in Castanheira de Pêra. 

I will post more updates later.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

This is one of those times you just don't know what to say.

[Mike88]

More updates:

The fire in Goís is finally dominated. Firefighters are now focused on possible fire resurfacing on the ground but many people are now returning to their villages.

The number of injured has risen to 254. This substantial increase in people injured is creating a lot of controversy. The PSD is worried about the sudden increase in injured and wants answers from the government.

The Attorney general office and the police are now investigating the real origins of the fire. The thesis that dry lightning started the fire is dissipating.

The government is favourable to the creating an independent committee, proposed by PSD, to find out what really went wrong in the last few days. At the same time, the government is creating funds to help the villages destroyed by the fire plus demanding answers from various government entities like the police or the meteorological institute. But, the government still hasn't asked for a global inquiry to the fire, which is creating more controversy.

[Mike88]

The before and after seen from space:

Before                                                                 After

[Mike88]

Huge scandal and controversy about the real number of deaths has appeared:

During the weekend, Expresso, I and Sol newspapers have published investigations and lists suggesting the number of deaths in the Pedrógão tragedy is higher than what the government is saying. Expresso newspaper says that the number of victims is 65 and not 64, while I and Sol newspapers says that the number of deaths is around 73 and could reach 88.

This is creating quite a political storm because, adding to this, the government is refusing to publish the official list of death people arguing the list is secret. This is already creating many problems especially to insurance companies as they can't compensate families because they don't know who died.

The PM and the government are pressing that the final death tally is 64 but they continue to refuse to publish the official list. At the same time, the DA office has already opened an investigation about the so-called 65th victim and is planning opening more investigations about other deaths that weren't accounted for.

[Mike88]

Wildfires across Portugal have killed more than 30 people and 51 are injured.

Roads, schools and entire villages across the country are being evacuated at the moment.


Map of the fires in Central Portugal (North not included).

[Mike88]

Update: The death toll has risen to 36 and the injured 55. There are a lot of fires still active in the rural parts of the country.

The good news is that rain is finally pouring in and this will help in the fight against the wildfires.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

There are more fires in Galicia and Asturias now, near Portugal, and they're apparently arson. Several have died and many more have been injured.