Expats Alert: Peneda-Gerês Wildfire Spurs Plea for More Water-Bombers

Clouds of smoke hanging over the Lima Valley are once again reminding Portugal’s foreign residents that the country’s spectacular natural parks can turn from postcard scenery into emergency zones in a matter of hours. A week-old blaze in the Peneda-Gerês National Park has already devoured thousands of hectares, pushed local firefighters to exhaustion and triggered a political tug-of-war over the urgent need for heavy-lift water-bombing aircraft.

Why the Peneda-Gerês fire should be on your radar

Portugal’s only national park stretches across rugged granite mountains that form the border with Spain. It is a favourite playground for hikers, trail-runners, wild-swimmers and owners of stone cottages restored by international buyers. The current fire erupted on 26 July near the village of Lindoso in the municipality of Ponte da Barca. Since then it has burned through more than 7,000 hectares, injured 20 people and forced short-lived evacuations of several hamlets. Beyond the human toll, conservationists warn that the flames are edging toward the Mata do Cabril, one of the park’s last pockets of ancient oak forest.

The state of the battle

By dawn on Thursday, commanders reported the perimeter to be “largely stabilised”, but they stressed that pockets of white-hot peat and unpredictable winds leave no room for complacency. Approximately 400 bombeiros, supported by 49 helicopters and a rotating fleet of smaller scooping planes, remain on site. Two Russian-built Kamov KA-32 choppers, capable of hauling 5-tonne Bambi buckets, have been the workhorses in the steepest valleys. Visibility, however, is often cut by dense smoke hugging the slopes, grounding aircraft for hours at a time.

A scramble for larger wings

Municipal leader Augusto Marinho has spent much of the week lobbying Lisbon for what he calls “fire-breakers, not fire-fighters” – the country’s limited stock of Canadair CL-415 superscoopers. These twin-engine planes can drop nearly 6,000 litres of water in a single pass. One such aircraft ditched in the Douro River during a separate mission in Penafiel on 1 August, leaving the nationwide fleet even thinner. Civil Protection officials insist every available heavy platform is already committed, but they have quietly prepared paperwork to activate the EU’s rescEU reserve, which could send Spanish or French tankers across the border within 24 hours if conditions deteriorate.

Terrain: the enemy within

Unlike the eucalyptus plantations that dominate coastal districts, Peneda-Gerês is a maze of granite cliffs, deep ravines and umbrella-shaped Scots pines. Fire engines cannot reach most ridge-tops, so crews are ferried by helicopter and then hike for kilometres carrying hoses, drip torches and chainsaws. Night operations are especially treacherous; loose boulders, sudden wind shifts and erratic flame fronts have already damaged two vehicles and left four firefighters with minor fractures.

What it means for health, travel and property

Satellite imagery from the Copernicus programme shows a plume drifting south-east toward Braga and Guimarães. Air-quality monitors in those cities briefly exceeded PM2.5 guidelines on Wednesday afternoon. The N203 mountain road between Entre Ambos-os-Rios and Germil remains closed, and several popular hiking trails, including the Trilho da Águia do Sarilhão, are off-limits. Insurers are advising homeowners within a 5 km radius to photograph belongings and keep policy numbers handy; many expat-owned houses in the vicinity lack the legally required 50-metre vegetation buffer.

Forecast and the bigger debate

Meteorologists see little relief ahead: temperatures in northern Portugal will hover around 34 °C, with humidity under 20 % through the weekend. Scientists blame decades of rural depopulation and aggressive pine planting for creating conditions in which fires leapfrog from canopy to canopy. Environmental NGOs are pressing the government to deploy year-round specialised wilderness brigades inside protected areas rather than relying on ad-hoc summer reinforcements.

Staying prepared if you live nearby

Civil Protection recommends enrolling in the multilingual ‘SMS 112’ alert system by sending the text message “REGISTO” plus your postcode to 112. Keep a go-bag with essentials, sign up for push notifications from the Associação Nacional de Bombeiros Voluntários, and familiarise yourself with the nearest evacuation centres – usually parish halls known as juntas de freguesia. Above all, follow local authorities’ instructions; under Portuguese law, ignoring an evacuation order can lead to fines of up to €5,000.

For now, the flames are largely penned in, but as every seasoned resident knows, a single gust can turn embers into a fresh front. Summer in Portugal’s highlands is glorious, but vigilance – and a well-funded aerial fleet – remain the price of those picture-perfect views.