Fire in Sabrosa with one front and 80% of the perimeter dominated

"We currently have a very favorable scenario. We were able to have very effective work from the teams during the night, also supported by four tracked machines that consolidated a large part of the perimeter," said José Requeijo, in a situation update made at 8:00 am.

According to the commander, this morning “there are still some hot spots” and a line of fire burning with medium intensity” and “with difficult access”.

"Which concerns us now, with rising temperatures, but which is, let's say, under our control at the moment. We are also awaiting the arrival of reinforcements from air resources, which have been requested, to consolidate and extinguish hot spots that are more difficult to access by ground resources," the commander stated.

There are 102 vehicles and 294 operators fighting this fire.

The fire alert was given at 2:23 pm on Saturday, in São Cibrão, Vila Real, continuing to Sabrosa where it approached several locations, such as Anta, Garganta and São Martinho de Anta, where 19 users were removed as a precaution, who returned to the building this morning.

Sabrosa's Civil Protection Councilor, António Araújo, said the fire burned areas of scrubland, pine and eucalyptus forests, and even farms belonging to some homes.

Telephone network cables also burned on the road between Garganta and São Martinho de Anta, which is closed to traffic due to fallen poles and cables.

This is the second major fire to affect the municipality in the space of two weeks, with the first burning around 600 hectares in the Souto Maior area.

"This situation is causing us great concern, even though we carried out prevention work that bears mentioning. These two fires passed through two points in the primary network where their fuel was managed before the summer," the councilor said.

The causes of the fire are being investigated by security forces, GNR and Judicial Police (PJ).

José Requeijo hopes that the morning, with little wind, will bring a “window of opportunity (…) regarding the activity and intensity of the fire”.

However, he highlighted that “weather conditions will be adverse”, with a very hot day expected, so the behavior of the fire may cause some changes.

The Douro sub-regional commander also pointed to two other fires that are ongoing in the municipality of Vila Real, and which are causing concern.

“We have to be here, basically, sharing resources and this difficulty also adds to extinguishing this fire,” said the commander.

Mainland Portugal is on alert between today and Thursday due to the high risk of fires in the coming days, the Minister of Internal Administration announced on Saturday.

"Given the worsening weather forecasts that point to a significant risk of rural fires, the Government has decided to declare a state of alert across the entire mainland," said Maria Lúcia Amaral, in a statement to the nation, without the right to questions.

The alert situation came into effect at 00:00 on Sunday and will last until 23:59 on Thursday.