Wildfires in Arouca and Cinfães: A Night of Fear and Devastation

With the help of a cane, Maria Alice Soares walks on the hill looking for a bucket. "Everything is burned, mother," her daughter, Maria dos Anjos, tries to dissuade the 81-year-old from Arouca from rummaging through the debris left by the fire that passed through there on Tuesday night. The house, the result of years of work by Maria Alice, who spent five years in Switzerland as a cook, is now uninhabitable. All because of the fire that has been raging for three days in the mountains of Arouca, Cinfães, and Castelo de Paiva and, by the end of Wednesday afternoon, continued to mobilize the largest number of firefighting resources in the country — 702 firefighters, 248 vehicles, and four aerial means. Despite the efforts, small fire outbreaks multiplied among the vegetation, suggesting that the fight against the fire will extend into the fourth day.

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