Rural fires in Portugal increased by 7% by 31 August, totaling 6,910 occurrences. Despite the increase in the number of fires, the burned area recorded a significant reduction of 73% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The district of Vila Real was the most affected, concentrating 25% of the total area burned in the country. These data were released by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).
The contrary trend between the number of fires and the burned area suggests that, although more occurrences took place, the fires were tendentially smaller in size, possibly due to a more effective response or less favorable meteorological conditions for the spread of flames.
