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Asked if there are criminal indications at the origin of this fire, the Secretary of State said that it is not yet possible to determine the causes.
“It is too early to have this confirmation, but, in any case, he had a deliberate hand, or this fact is the product of negligent behavior, I remember that both situations are a crime,” he warned.
At a press conference, the Operational Commander of the Central South District Group, Luís Belo Costa, said that firefighters hope to be able to control the flames during the early hours of Tuesday.
“With the set of indicators with which we work – number of personnel, equipment at hand and the meteorological indicators, that is to say the wind – we count during the night to control the fire,” said the official.
Luís Belo Costa added that “a little more than 50% of the perimeter” is dominated, of which 30% is already consolidated with “excellent work of the tracked machines”.
To give a dimension of the magnitude of a “very large” fire, in a still very preliminary assessment, the person in charge of the combat actions added that the flames will have already consumed an area very close to 15 thousand hectares, corresponding to about 60 kilometers of perimeter. .
The biggest concerns are centered in the municipality of Oleiros, although there are still “one or another hot spot” in the municipalities of Proença-a-Nova and Castelo Branco.
Of the 33 people who were evacuated from their homes in the Oleiros municipality, Luís Belo Costa said that “as soon as possible” they will return to their homes and that the towns still in the line of fire are not a cause for concern.
Although the damage survey has not yet been carried out, Commander Luís Belo Costa said that there are some cabins burned and a second home affected.
At 9:00 p.m., the fire was being fought by 1,027 agents, supported by 343 vehicles.
In the fight against the flames, some 16 air assets were also available during the day.
