A water bomber plane that was fighting forest fires in Portugal crashed Friday, July 15, 2022 in the early evening near Vila Nova de Foz Coa, in the region of Guarda (north), causing the death of the pilot, its sole occupant, announced civil protection.
“At this stage, we have no details on what happened”National Civil Protection Commander André Fernandes previously told the media.
The aircraft was a medium-sized, FireBoss-type aircraft.
“It was with great dismay that I learned of the death of the pilot of the plane which crashed while fighting a fire”Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa reacted on his Twitter account.
900 firefighters mobilized
In this country plagued for a week in scorching temperatures and a series of firesthe emergency services identified a dozen active fires on Friday evening, which mobilized more than 900 firefighters.
At the same time, also in northern Portugal, one of the most worrying fires was raging in the municipality of Baiao, a hilly area in the Porto region, upstream from the Douro, the great river that crosses it.
At the gates of the village of Eiriz, a front of flames continued to progress slowly towards a winding road, but the wind was blowing weakly and in the opposite direction to the dwellings.
When an Italian Canadair stopped its noria in order to pour out its clouds of water, the firefighters positioned themselves on the road, to prevent the fire from going deeper into the valley, and around the houses to protect them.
47 degrees reached in northern Portugal
Owner of the house closest to the edge of the forest, Maria, a 71-year-old retired teacher, who did not wish to give her last name, sprinkles the vegetation in front of her door and asks the firefighters if she can offer them something to eat or drink. “Every year in this season there are fires here, but usually it is not so strong”she testified to l’AFPwhile the fire that roamed around his garden broke out not far from there at dawn on Thursday.
“It’s really hot, and it’s been going on for several days”commented another resident, Afonso Almeida, a 67-year-old carpenter.
Before dropping slightly on Friday, temperatures had reached 47 degrees the day before in northern Portugal, a record for a month of July in this country.
Since the start of 2022, just over 30,000 hectares have gone up in smoke in Portugal, the highest figure on July 15 since 2017, a year marked by deadly forest fires that killed around 100 people.
On Wednesday in Greece, two of the four members of the crew of a helicopter which took part in the fight against a forest fire on the island of Samos died when the aircraft crashed at sea.
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