Fires in Portugal: First death in the east of the country

The fires have claimed their first victim in Portugal . Carlos Damaso, the former mayor of Guarda, in the east of the country, died as a result of the fire that affected his town, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa , the country's president, announced on Friday, August 15. The head of state added that he was interrupting his vacation and returning to monitor the "serious situation of rural fires."

"The President of the Republic presented, early this afternoon, his sincere condolences to the President of the Municipality of Guarda, for the death of the former mayor Carlos Dâmaso, victim of a fire that he was fighting in his municipality, asking that they be transmitted to his family," explains a press release published on the presidency's website.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa then attended a meeting at the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, the statement continued, as Portugal is experiencing a wave of fires that began more than three weeks ago. Several thousand firefighters have been working for days to combat the various outbreaks across the country.

The government has also activated, like its neighbor Spain , "the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism" and requested the dispatch of four Canadair planes to remain on national territory until August 18, specifies the presidency of the Republic on X. In Spain, three people have been killed and thousands have had to be evacuated in recent days.

Following the deadly fires of 2017, which killed 119 people, Portugal increased its investment in prevention tenfold and doubled its budget for fighting forest fires . The Iberian country thus managed to reduce the area burned each year on average over the period 2018-2023 to 54,500 hectares, a third of what burned annually over the period 2001-2017, according to the government agency for forest fire management (AGIF).

But the fires that ravaged Portugal for three days in September 2024 alone reversed this trend, increasing the area burned for the year to 138,000 hectares, four times more than in 2023. The year 2024 was marked by the deaths of 12 people, nine firefighters and three civilians, the highest death toll since the black year of 2017.

Fires are becoming more numerous, stronger and more widespread due to global warming linked to human activities, which is exacerbating droughts and forest dieback.