Vila Real fire declared under control

"At 7:45 a.m., we changed the status of this fire to being resolved, which means the fire is within its perimeter and stabilized, but we still have some very hot spots, others with some active flames but with teams working," said José Guilherme, second Regional Commander of the North, who spoke to journalists at 8:00 a.m. at the command post.

The fire that has been burning since 11:45 pm on Saturday started in Sirarelhos and snaked its way through the Alvão mountains, passing through several villages, until it reached the municipality of Mondim de Basto, reaching the area of the Alvão Natural Park (PNA).

On the fourth day, the fire entered the resolution phase, but, according to José Guilherme, the day will still involve a lot of work on the ground.

"We are monitoring the situation's evolution, and what the weather conditions bring us today, but at this moment the fire is in the resolution phase," he emphasized, adding that 606 firefighters were on duty overnight.

This morning, 512 firefighters are spread across the extensive perimeter of this fire. According to the official, aerial resources will be activated as soon as possible.

"A heavy helicopter or a pair of Alphas to carry out armed surveillance, that is, they will not make direct drops, they will fly loaded and if there is any need at the time they will act," he explained.

And if necessary, the number of operators will also be increased.

"Everything is planned and streamlined with the national command (...). There are still concerns. Just because the fire is being resolved doesn't mean it's over or already consolidated. There's a lot of work to be done. We have many hotspots that seem to require monitoring and are causing some concern," he reiterated.

On Tuesday, there were several reactivations during the afternoon and the one that caused the most concern was in Galegos da Serra, a village where the population was confined due to the intense smoke.

Many resources were concentrated there and, according to José Guilherme, the population was never in danger.

“Throughout the night there was once again excellent, selfless work and professionalism from all these women and men who once again made an effort so that now, at this time, we could have this fire in this situation,” the Commander of Relief Operations (COS) made a point of highlighting.