The Portuguese government issued a preventive alert at the very high risk of fires on Sunday on Sunday, due to the heat wave expected on the Iberian peninsula in the coming days.
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“Next week will be difficult,” said Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral.
Portugal and Spain have already been affected by several forest fires in recent days, most of them evolving favorably. Hundreds of firefighters were still mobilized on variable importance in Portugal on Saturday on Saturday.
“The government has declared the alert for the whole territory between Sunday August 3, midnight and Thursday, August 7, 11:59 p.m., due to the deterioration of weather conditions and the very high risk of fire in rural areas,” the government said in a statement.
This decision implies the prohibition to make fire, to practice pyrotechnics or to circulate in certain forest areas.
More than 25,700 hectares have burned in Portugal since the beginning of the year, according to the European Forest Fair Information System (Effis).
On the other side of the border, in the Spanish region of Galicia (north-west), the firefighters fight the flames in the locality of Vilardvos.
Experts consider that the multiplication of heat waves is a consequence of climate change. The Iberian Peninsula is strongly struck, with heat waves and droughts that promote forest fires.
