A researcher from the University of Minho warned on Friday that the rain “was a blessing” to put out the fires, “but it could also be a big problem,” stressing that there should be “municipal post-fire emergency plans to extinguish burned areas.”
Speaking to Lusa, António Bento Gonçalves, director of the Civil Protection and Territorial Management course at the Minho Academy, explained that one of the consequences of the fire is soil erosion, which causes the so-called “soil hydrophobia”, which combined with sloping terrain and “concentrated and abundant” rainfall can cause “mud torrents”.
“The rain was a blessing because the situation was very complicated, but it could also be a big problem in some places if we have very intense rainfall locally and concentrated in certain places,” he warned.
As the president of the Portuguese Association of Geographers also pointed out, the fires that have ravaged the country in recent days left “a very large and unprotected area of vegetation.”
“Vegetation is what sustains the soil, this soil has become more impoverished by the volatilization of some nutrients, it is particularly vulnerable to anything that may happen, especially water erosion, and if the slopes are very steep and if the rain is concentrated, if we have precipitation concentrated in steep areas, we can have a large flow of mud torrents,” he warned.
He continued: “This is because, in addition to the soil not being protected by vegetation, infiltration will also be lower because there is no retention in the leaves, the soil becomes hydrophobic and we run the risk of having quite serious problems.”
The problems can be of two types: “We are going to lose soil where it is needed and natural regeneration, or possible reforestation, will be much more difficult, and we are going to take the soil very abruptly to where it can be harmful, going against houses, bridges, cars.”
Therefore, Bento Gonçalves argued that “There should be annual planning for burned areas that downstream there were towns or infrastructures that could be damaged by floods, and, automatically, as soon as a fire occurred, [os municípios] carry out these emergency measures that should be included in a municipal post-fire emergency plan for the restoration of burned areas, but unfortunately this is not the case.”
However, “in the case of these fires and this rain, the situation is different,” he stressed, because “it was the rain that helped put out the fire, literally leaving no time to take action.”
But, he said, there are still some steps that can be taken. “It is very important that you try to clean and unblock anything that could be an obstacle in the water lines.The gutters are as clean as possible, trying to avoid all obstacles that could hinder the free flow of water is essential,” he warned.
According to the researcher, if burnt trees have fallen into river beds, streams and ditches near villages, it is necessary to try to unblock them as much as possible.
He argued that it is necessary to “try to open the way so that the water does not create a dam and accumulate dirt, sticks, earth that when it bursts, takes everything forward.”
The burnt area in mainland Portugal since Sunday exceeds 124 thousand hectares, According to the European Copernicus system, which shows that more than 116 thousand hectares have already been burned in the North and Central regions, 93% of the burned area in the entire national territory.
The Government has declared a state of emergency in all municipalities affected by the fires of recent days and today is a day of national mourning.
Source: Observadora
