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Author Topic: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars  (Read 2682 times)

Offline zorgon

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Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
By RAPHAEL MINDERJUNE 18, 2017


Quote
MADRID — A raging forest fire enveloped a stretch of road in central Portugal this weekend, killing more than 60 people, including at least 30 motorists who were trapped in their cars.

The fire, which was still burning on Sunday afternoon, has brought “a dimension of human tragedy that we cannot remember,” Prime Minister António Costa said during a visit to the scorched area around Pedrógão Grande.

The initial deadly blaze started on Saturday, and the flames spread along four fronts with “great violence,” said Jorge Gomes, the secretary of state for internal administration. By Sunday afternoon, five infernos were raging in central Portugal, he said.

The death toll stood at 61, according to Lusa, the national news agency. Officials said they expected the toll to rise.




Offline zorgon

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Offline zorgon

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2017, 06:09:41 pm »





Offline ArMaP

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2017, 06:19:25 pm »
This is the worst death toll in a fire ever, if I'm not mistaken, and all the dead were civilians (unless some injured firefighter has died in the last hours), all caught while trying to flee the fire. Most were still inside the cars or near them, and were mostly people that had been to a local river beach.

The fire was started by a lighting that hit a tree, and as Portugal as been in a near draught and temperatures at the time were close to 40º C the fire spread very fast. A man in an interview said that he was on the phone with a man he knows in the location where the fire started, some 20 km away, and the other man warned him that the fire was going in his direction, but 20 minutes after the fire had crossed the 20 km, thanks to the strong winds that usually follow thunderstorm clouds.

Offline biggles

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2017, 06:30:35 pm »
Reminds me of Oz fires in Summer, treacherous for sure; that's why I intend to have them fireproof blankets/covers and a couple of fire extinguishers for where I'm going.  One for the house and one for the car in case of getting trapped there.

I cant have my Eddie in danger.
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Offline ArMaP

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2017, 12:53:04 am »
Reminds me of Oz fires in Summer, treacherous for sure;
Although, from the images I saw, that area has only pines, we also have many places with eucalyptus (planted because they grow very fast, used in by the paper industry), that burn as fast as pines.

Offline micjer

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2017, 07:37:28 am »
Terrible.

Fort McMurray Alberta Canada last year was another bad one.  8000 homes burnt.  Still rebuilding up there.
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Offline Somamech

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2017, 11:01:27 am »
Hopefully judging from your reply's Ara you have not lost loved one's in that tragic fire. 

My heart goes out to you and your lovely country in hard times like that. 

It was reported on the new's here in OZ over the weekend that I view. 

 :'(

Offline thorfourwinds

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2017, 11:20:47 am »
Reminds me of Oz fires in Summer, treacherous for sure; that's why I intend to have them fireproof blankets/covers and a couple of fire extinguishers for where I'm going.  One for the house and one for the car in case of getting trapped there.

I cant have my Eddie in danger.

We firepersons have pushed the use of Barricade Fire Blocking Gel for many years.

http://www.firegel.com

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Offline ArMaP

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2017, 12:47:07 pm »
Hopefully judging from your reply's Ara you have not lost loved one's in that tragic fire.
Thankfully, no, I haven't, that fire happened in an area more than 200 km from where I live and where, as far as I know, nobody I know lives there.

A co-worker was strongly impressed with this fire because she was on that area 4 years ago, and she said that it was a beautiful place, a great place for a vacation, and now probably all the things she saw were destroyed, and some of the people she met may have died or left without a thing.

Offline biggles

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2017, 01:33:42 pm »
We firepersons have pushed the use of Barricade Fire Blocking Gel for many years.

http://www.firegel.com

Thanks so much Thor, I will look into that, sounds awesome honey. xo
I know that I know nothing - thanks Capricorn.

Offline Somamech

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2017, 08:38:30 am »
Thankfully, no, I haven't, that fire happened in an area more than 200 km from where I live and where, as far as I know, nobody I know lives there.

A co-worker was strongly impressed with this fire because she was on that area 4 years ago, and she said that it was a beautiful place, a great place for a vacation, and now probably all the things she saw were destroyed, and some of the people she met may have died or left without a thing.

Thats good to hear mate regarding your family.

Like you said in another post in this thread these event's do occur sadly.  I recall reading a article in our last wildfire here in Oz describing how people survived such a ferocious fire with smart prevention method's along with survival methods on their property in case a bush fire did, in fact, become a reality. 

Offline ArMaP

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Re: Portugal Fires Kill More Than 60, Including Drivers Trapped in Cars
« Reply #12 on: June 21, 2017, 04:48:10 pm »
The fire that killed all those people (64 is the last update, from yesterday, after the finding of a man that was missing and the death of a firefighter that was in critical condition after trying to save people that crashed their car into the fire-truck) was extinguished this afternoon. As far as I know there isn't yet a calculation of the burned area, but considering the time it took and the speed at which it was travelling it must be large.

Today, the third day of official mourning, we had an one minute silence, and today we had also the first funerals of the victims.

PS: as I thought this was, in number of victims, the worst forest fire ever recorded.

 


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