Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 26th July 2023

Good morning – The main news for all the wrong reasons, this week, has of course been the intense fires in Greece, Italy Algeria and Tunisia; Greece feeling the brunt of this on the islands of Corfu and Rhodes.

This was not unexpected as we were forewarned beforehand, of the intense heat wave that would be affecting southern Europe with the presence of a “Heat Dome” duelled by heat from North Africa.

Coincidentally a subject that appeared to go unnoticed in the mainstream media that it was on the 23rd July 2018 when fires broke out in the region of Attica, Greece which resulted in the deaths of 100 people with a further 200 injured

 The fire ravaged over 3000 homes, leaving hundreds of locals to take shelter in vacant hotels, a summer camp and a nearby army centre.  Roughly half of those who died were aged 60 or greater, due to difficulty these individuals had evacuating their homes quickly, given the speed with which the fire spread. Eleven children perished in the flames. The vast majority of victims were Greeks; four tourists also died.

Very fortunately, hopefully due to lessons learned since then, in the fires in Greece on this occasion, comparatively few have been injured, and there has so far thankfully been no deaths.

As demand for air travel soars, thousands of people were evacuated from Rhodes because of wildfires fanned by high winds and extreme heat. Between 7,000 and 10,000 British people were thought to be on the island as the wildfires spread, according to the Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell.

There have been harrowing scenes involving evacuations with both residents and tourists trying to escape the approaching flames.  The international community has stepped up as usual, with firefighters arriving from several countries to assist their local counterparts. With the situation clearly dangerous in certain areas on the island of Rhodes, most airlines acted as you would expect by flying aircraft empty to the island and evacuating those who were eager to return home. The exception to this was Ryanair who said it continued to operate flights as usual to Rhodes airport – which is not in an area directly affected by the fires so far. The company operates flights to Rhodes from airports including London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin. Despite the emergency evacuations and wildfires it said: “Ryanair flights to/from Rhodes and Corfu are currently operating as normal and unaffected by the forest fires.”

In our view and I guess the views of many, this was highly irresponsible clearly putting profits ahead of public safety. Rhodes is a relatively small island and increasing the population at a time when the authorities are dealing with a major catastrophe does not make sense.

In Portugal we have so far escaped the heatwave, but when we look back to June/July 2022, we were also in the grip of one with air temperatures in the mid-40s.C with very low relativity and on occasion’s strong winds. As a result we encountered major fires but fortunately these were not close to highly populated areas or major tourist resorts. As in the case of the Monchique fire in 2019. We monitored the fires during the period and what was obvious in these extreme weather conditions was the considerable intensity of the fires, how quickly they spread and how long they lasted – some over one week.

This is why it is important to be aware of the fire risks, study weather forecasts and be prepared.  Unfortunately most experts agree that the situation will become worse and this of course includes Portugal. We have been fortunate so far this year but let’s see what the rest of the summer brings.

News

Four earthquakes with magnitudes between 2.1 and 3.4 felt in Terceira and Faial islands

Ponta Delgada, Azores, 25 July 2023 (Lusa) – Four earthquakes with magnitudes between 2.1 and 3.4 on the Richter scale were felt on Monday in Terceira and Faial islands, the Azores Seismovolcanic Information and Surveillance Center (CIVISA) reported.

According to CIVISA, the strongest earthquake, with a magnitude of 3.4, was recorded at 21:12 local time (22:12 in Lisbon) and had an epicentre around 39 kilometres west of Capelo, on the island of Faial.

The source said in a statement that the earthquake was felt with maximum intensity III/IV (Modified Mercalli Scale) in the parishes of Capelo, Castelo Branco and Pedro Miguel (Horta municipality, Faial) and with intensity III in the parish of Flamengos.

The three earthquakes recorded on Monday on Terceira Island occurred at 6:41 pm local time (7:41 pm in Lisbon), with a magnitude of 2.1; at 20:12 local time (21:12 in Lisbon), with a magnitude of magnitude 2.2; and at 20:13 (21:13 in Lisbon), with 2.4 magnitude.

The quakes had an epicentre about four kilometres northeast of Santa Bárbara.

Also according to CIVISA, earthquakes on Terceira Island were felt with maximum intensity III (two) and IV (one) on the Modified Mercalli scale, in the parishes of Santa Bárbara, Doze Ribeiras and São Bartolomeu, in the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo.

Comment

There has been over one hundred very slight earthquakes west of Faial Island over the last two weeks, most not felt, with the exception of 4.5 magnitude 3 days ago.

Archives