Rural fire Medronheira, Odemira

Incêndio:Bush

N.º Oc. 2022020023633

UPDATE: 1730 HRS

Fire now under conclusion. All roads re-open

Deployment 211 operatives supported by 76 vehicles.

UPDATE 0700 hrs

The fire was brought under resolution at 0225 hrs, meaning that it is under control.

As at 0700 hrs a total of 254 operatives supported by 89 vehicles remain deployed.

UPDATE: 22.20 HRS

Deployment 259 operatives supported by 92 vehicles.

n a new report to Lusa, at 8:30 pm, the mayor Hélder Guerreiro indicated that he was aware of a total of 13 people removed from their homes , only “for prevention”, including the first seven. Furthermore, “15 people left a tourist accommodation” only and only “on their own initiative”.

All these people, whether those who were withdrawn or those who left voluntarily, went “to the homes of family members or to their own homes”, since “no one is” in the pavilion of Escola EB2,3 in São Teotónio, prepared to welcome the displaced, stressed the mayor.

Contacted by Lusa, after 8:15 pm, a source from the national relief operations command of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), explained that “the fire still has two active fronts”. The fire “burns with moderate intensity, we are proceeding with the repositioning of some means that have been arriving in the meantime”, she added. At 8:44 pm, there were 240 operational personnel and 84 vehicles, with the air assets having already left the theatre of operations.

The same ANEPC source said he hoped that, “during the night, the means that have just arrived in the theatre of operations” can be repositioned so that, eventually, it is possible to “control the fire ”.

UPDATE: 1945 hrs

Deployment is now 257 operatives supported by 84 vehicles and 5 aircraft.

UPDATE 1715 hrs

Deployment 225 operatives supported by 74 vehicles and 8 aircraft

Two families, a total of seven people, were “preventively removed” from their homes, in the area where the fire is raging in the municipality of Odemira (Beja), and taken to São Teotónio, the mayor told Lusa news agency.

“People were removed preventively. There were two families, representing seven people”, explained the mayor, Hélder Guerreiro, to Lusa, at 16:45.

The seven people were taken to the pavilion of Escola EB2,3 in São Teotónio, which “is ready to receive” residents who need to be removed from their homes due to the fire.

“It is [the place] that is prepared to receive people, with food, a place to stay, everything”, stressed the mayor.

According to Hélder Guerreiro, “for now, there is no indication of burned houses”, only of “evacuations that had to be carried out in a preventive way”.

The mayor also said that National Road 120 (EN120), which connects Odemira to the Algarve, “is interrupted on the section between Boavista dos Pinheiros and São Teotónio”.

Contacted by Lusa, a source from the GNR’s Beja Territorial Command, confirmed the removal of seven people from a place “called Ourada” to São Teotónio.

And the cut to traffic on the EN120, because “the fire is right next to the road” and it was necessary to “guarantee a safety perimeter and cut” the road.

“Alternative roads are Estada Municipal 502-1 and 502-2, on the São Teotónio side”, while “on the Boavista dos Pinheiros side, the alternative is the vicinal road 1-9” informed the GNR.

UPDATE 1700 HRs

Deployment 199 operatives supported by 67 vehicles and 8 aircraft.

As forecast earlier the wind has decreased considerably.

Comment

With a rain front moving into the Algarve heading generally north east with short and heavy showers, it will be interesting to see whether this reaches the fire area and if so the affect. Latest ACCU weather map in comments.

UPDATE 1600 hrs

Deployment 136 operatives supported by 43 vehicles and 10 aircraft.

The fire that has been burning for three hours in the municipality of Odemira (Beja) has two active fronts and is evolving “with some intensity”, due to the wind, with some scattered houses, Civil Protection told Lusa.

According to a source from the National Operations Command of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), contacted by Lusa at 14:50, “there are some sensitive points” in the area “where the fire is evolving”, which are precisely “some scattered dwellings”.

“At the moment, we are not aware of homes that have to be evacuated, however, there are means that are already dispersed across these sensitive points to prevent and protect them,” he said.

The same source explained that the fire, whose alert was given at 12:05 and which broke out in the Medronheira area, in the parish of São Teotónio, Odemira, “is active and burning with some intensity in an area of ​​bush, cork oak and eucalyptus trees” .

“It is a fire that, at the moment, is developing with two active fronts”, he said, referring that, at that time, 149 operational personnel, 10 air assets and 41 support vehicles were involved .

This device is being reinforced with “means from Setúbal, Évora and Faro, which are on their way to the site”, he added.

n that area “some wind can be felt” and this factor has been what “is making the fight difficult”, because, despite being a mountain area, “it is not very high” and even “has good access”.

Also contacted by Lusa, the mayor of Odemira, Hélder Guerreiro, confirmed that the area affected by the fire “has some scattered dwellings”, but, in case it is necessary to proceed with evacuations, “there is already a pavilion in São Teotónio on standby” .

“And we have all the means ready so that, if something happens, we can act”, he said, stressing, however, that, until now, “it was not necessary to evacuate houses”.

SITERP 1500 hrs 18th September 2022

Deployment 149 operatives supported by 41 vehicles and 10 aircraft

A total of 116 operatives and eight air assets were fighting, at 1:49 pm, a fire in the Medronheira area, in the municipality of Odemira, according to the Civil Protection website.

The location of the fire is about 3 kms east north east of the town of São Teotónio and about 15 kms north of the border with Faro District (Algarve)

According to the website of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), the fire alert, in a wooded area, in Medronheira, in the parish of S. Teotónio, Odemira, Beja district, was given at 12:05.

In addition to the flames being fought by 149 operatives, they are supported by 41 ground vehicles, 10 aircraft.

Wind in the area for 1500 hrs is forecast by 1pMA at 15 km/h gusting to 40 km/h from the south east but decreasing considerably by 1700 hrs before picking up again later tonight. Air temperature 32.1C.

The high winds will aggravate the fire fighting.

Contacted by the Lusa agency, around 1:30 pm, the District Relief Operations Command of Beja (CDOS) sent further clarifications on this fire, as it was mobilizing resources to the site.

Earlier a CDOS source told Lusa that the flames were raging in an “area of bush and fruit trees”.