Portugal Wildfires Worsen
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2025 1:10 pm
Portugal is not alone with the current wave of disastrous wildfires, but it cannot be overlooked here. Since I returned from Seattle, there has been a new wave of horrific fires in this country. But things are also bad in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, the UK, and growing worse in Finland too. Prolonged periods of heat and next to no rain in recent weeks, has turned around the good fortunes from an extremely wet winter into escalating and unchecked blazes. Soaring temps here are in the mid 30s C. in Porto, but up in Douro, temps this week have ranged mostly between 41* and 44* with expected increases on Wed. and Thursday.
One cannot turn on TV in Portugal without the lead story, the wildfires, seemingly still mostly out of control. While the sheer quantity of fires is lower than the 10 year average, we've seen 3x as many fires as in 2024, so far this year. Right now, things are really bad. From Alentejo where there are sporadic fires, and Dao as well, (especially near the Aveiro district), the northern half of the country is where more than 3/4 of the current fires exist.
It may not sound like a lot, to some, but 11,000 hectares had burned before I returned home to PT, last Thursday. Since then many new fires have spread and an additional 4,000 ha are currently blazing. 25% of these wildfires are due to arsonists in PT in 2025. Already there have been 26 arrests of these arsonists and for the life of me, I just can't understand what drives this. I have heard of a profit motive and "eco-terrorism" but until I understand this dynamic better, I won't speculate. To the same point in 2024, only 20 arsonists had been caught red-handed.
Areas particularly hard hit are in the surrounds of Evora, (one of our fave areas to visit during "regions tours") in Alentejo, Beja, Aveiro, Viana da Castelo, Arouca = really bad at the moment, Parades, and in Douro lots of devastation around the Vila Real area and especially Ponte da Barca. One man was seen setting several fires in the Vila Real area and he was finally caught. Portugal should make this type of intentional crime a more serious offense, with life in prison or worse, if people and animals die, as happens early and often. But back to the point.
Shocking to me, small village and regional festivals have NOT yet cancelled their fireworks displays. One such event did move the time from midnight to 11:30 pm. Really?!?!?!
A friend told me today, but this is unverified, that there was one fire burning in close proximity to Qta do Noval. I only learned of that at 7 pm tonight, (now almost 9 pm) and I sent emails to those that work there, to see if the property is in any danger.
Orange suns and moons and acrid smoke in the air can be experienced here in Porto, but the closest fires to the city are about 35 minutes away in Penafiel, which is part of Vinho Verde. Further north, Chaves and other small towns have some small fires too, but most is in the center-north of the country at the moment.
Latvia has sent in a team of expert ground fire troops, and Spain has been sending in fire extinguishing air support teams/planes. Portugal's small budget with only 10.6 million inhabitants, is not enough to handle the quantity of annual fires this country experiences. Considering 1/4 of the fires are due to arson, (at least the ones they know about) it seems like more needs to prohibit this kind of criminal act. I remember last year, when fires were getting out of control ... when no one saw it coming ... a significant amount of precipitation was able to extinguish all of the fires in Douro that the Spanish firefighters had not been able to control.
One cannot turn on TV in Portugal without the lead story, the wildfires, seemingly still mostly out of control. While the sheer quantity of fires is lower than the 10 year average, we've seen 3x as many fires as in 2024, so far this year. Right now, things are really bad. From Alentejo where there are sporadic fires, and Dao as well, (especially near the Aveiro district), the northern half of the country is where more than 3/4 of the current fires exist.
It may not sound like a lot, to some, but 11,000 hectares had burned before I returned home to PT, last Thursday. Since then many new fires have spread and an additional 4,000 ha are currently blazing. 25% of these wildfires are due to arsonists in PT in 2025. Already there have been 26 arrests of these arsonists and for the life of me, I just can't understand what drives this. I have heard of a profit motive and "eco-terrorism" but until I understand this dynamic better, I won't speculate. To the same point in 2024, only 20 arsonists had been caught red-handed.
Areas particularly hard hit are in the surrounds of Evora, (one of our fave areas to visit during "regions tours") in Alentejo, Beja, Aveiro, Viana da Castelo, Arouca = really bad at the moment, Parades, and in Douro lots of devastation around the Vila Real area and especially Ponte da Barca. One man was seen setting several fires in the Vila Real area and he was finally caught. Portugal should make this type of intentional crime a more serious offense, with life in prison or worse, if people and animals die, as happens early and often. But back to the point.
Shocking to me, small village and regional festivals have NOT yet cancelled their fireworks displays. One such event did move the time from midnight to 11:30 pm. Really?!?!?!
A friend told me today, but this is unverified, that there was one fire burning in close proximity to Qta do Noval. I only learned of that at 7 pm tonight, (now almost 9 pm) and I sent emails to those that work there, to see if the property is in any danger.
Orange suns and moons and acrid smoke in the air can be experienced here in Porto, but the closest fires to the city are about 35 minutes away in Penafiel, which is part of Vinho Verde. Further north, Chaves and other small towns have some small fires too, but most is in the center-north of the country at the moment.
Latvia has sent in a team of expert ground fire troops, and Spain has been sending in fire extinguishing air support teams/planes. Portugal's small budget with only 10.6 million inhabitants, is not enough to handle the quantity of annual fires this country experiences. Considering 1/4 of the fires are due to arson, (at least the ones they know about) it seems like more needs to prohibit this kind of criminal act. I remember last year, when fires were getting out of control ... when no one saw it coming ... a significant amount of precipitation was able to extinguish all of the fires in Douro that the Spanish firefighters had not been able to control.