Forest fires injure 9 firefighters in Portugal, 2 seriously

Forest fires injure 9 firefighters in Portugal, 2 seriously

03 July 2017

Portugal – LISBON, Portugal (AP) Nine Portuguese firefighters were injured Monday while tackling two wildfires near where 64 people died in a forest blaze last month, emergency services said.

Six of the injured firefighters worked for a private company and were helping public services at a fire, the Civil Protection Agency said.

The injured were taken to a local hospital, where Dr. Cristina Goncalves told TVI that two of them were in serious condition due to smoke inhalation, six had burns and another had a leg injury.

Authorities were not immediately available to describe how the injuries occurred.

The two fires were in the central region of Tomar, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Lisbon, where temperatures were around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). More than 400 firefighters and eight water-dropping aircraft were deployed, and officials said they were gradually bringing the blazes under control.

The fires were in a forest area 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from Pedrogao Grande, where dozens died in a blaze on June 17.

Wildfires are a common occurrence in Portugal during the summer.

The forest fire, which started on the night of June 24 and still smoldering in Spain’s southwestern region of Huelva, burned a total of 8,486 hectares, the Andalusian Regional Government said on Wednesday. Environmental spokesman for Andalusia, Jose Fiscal, confirmed the damage on his Twitter account. Over 2,000 people had had to be evacuated from hotels and campsites on the perimeter of the fire, he said. He added that the perimeter established around the fire was actually 10,900 hectares, but within that perimeter, 2,414 hectares of woodland were still intact. The fire damaged two protected areas: 6,761 hectares of Donana National Park, which has UNESCO protected status and is home to around 400 different species such as the threatened Iberian Lynx and Iberian Eagle, and 17 hectares of Laguna de Palos y Madres Nature Park. The Andalusian government believed that had it not been for the work of fire fighters, who at the height of the blaze numbered around 500, the damage would have been far worse for the 43,225 hectares of woods and scrubland. According to the regional government, temperatures were around 40 degrees Celsius when the fire began, with a wind-speed of between 30 and 40 km per hour (km/h) and gusts of up to 90 km/h at night, which helped propagate the flames and made it impossible to use aircraft or helicopters to fight the fire. A total of 50 firemen remain in the zone to continue the work of damping down and to ensure there are no flare ups, while investigations continue into the cause of the blaze. Authorities have not ruled out a human cause.
Read full text at: http://eng.belta.by/society/view/spanish-forest-fire-burns-over-8400-hectares-in-and-around-national-park-102857-2017/
If you use BelTAs materials, you must credit us with a hyperlink to eng.belta.by.Tropical peat swamp forests, which once occupied large swaths of Southeast Asia and other areas, provided a significant “sink” that helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But such forests have been disappearing fast due to clear-cutting and drainage projects making way for plantations. Now, research shows peatlands face another threat, as climate change alters rainfall patterns, potentially destroying even forested peatlands that remain undrained.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-peatlands-dwindling-losses.html#jCpTropical peat swamp forests, which once occupied large swaths of Southeast Asia and other areas, provided a significant “sink” that helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But such forests have been disappearing fast due to clear-cutting and drainage projects making way for plantations. Now, research shows peatlands face another threat, as climate change alters rainfall patterns, potentially destroying even forested peatlands that remain undrained.

3. July 2017/by GFMCadmin