Portugal appeals to European Union for reinforcements

Portugal asked its European partners on Wednesday 21 August for water bomber planes to fight a fire that has been raging for a week on the island of Madeira, threatening a forest classified as a world heritage site. “We will activate in the next few hours the European civil protection mechanism in order to bring in two Canadair aircraft of a type that can be used in Madeira.”a government source told the Lusa news agency.

The president of the regional government, Miguel Albuquerque, also announced the arrival on Wednesday of 60 firefighters and rescue workers sent as reinforcements from Lisbon, in addition to the 76 already sent by the national government last weekend. As of midday on Tuesday, the area burned by this fire had reached 4,392 hectares, an additional 959 hectares in 24 hours, the European Copernicus Observatory (EMS) reported on the social network X.

On Wednesday evening, the flames were still spreading on two fronts in very difficult-to-access areas of the central mountain range of this island, very popular with foreign tourists located off the coast of Morocco, said Miguel Albuquerque. The strong winds that contributed to the spread of the fire also disrupted air traffic in Madeira, and stranded tourists on the island, but the manager of Funchal airport assured Tuesday that its operation had resumed normally.

The fire broke out last Wednesday in the municipality of Ribeira Brava and then spread to the neighbouring municipalities of Câmara de Lobos and Ponta do Sol, located on the southern coast of the island, west of the regional capital Funchal. Around 200 people had to be evacuated from their homes, partly to avoid the risk of smoke inhalation, but most of these residents have since been able to return home.