A firefighter has died tackling a blaze in Portugal, prompting condolences from President António José Seguro, who praised her selflessness and courage in a statement on the Presidency's website. The Portuguese Firefighters League (LBP) says she is the second firefighter killed on duty this year, and part of a grim tally: 257 deaths over the past 46 years.

The numbers behind those losses are stark. A 2019 study in the International Journal of Wildland Fire, co-authored by University of Coimbra fire expert Domingos Viegas, examined 865 wildfire fatalities across Portugal, Spain, Greece and Sardinia between 1945 and 2016. Civilians accounted for the largest share (42.3%), followed by firefighters (30.8%) and aircraft crew (11.1%). Burns and suffocation caused 65% of deaths where a cause could be established, with health problems and aerial accidents making up most of the rest. For Portugal specifically, firefighters were the hardest-hit group at 43.5% of fatalities — a mirrored pattern in Spain, while in Greece and Sardinia civilians dominated. The worst single year was 1985, when 19 Portuguese firefighters died, 14 of them in the Armamar fire.

Recent years have brought fresh tragedies. Between 2017 and 2025, 27 firefighters and 156 civilians died in Portuguese rural fires — a toll that includes the 2017 Pedrógão Grande disaster. In September 2024, three members of the Vila Nova de Oliveirinha brigade — Sónia Melo, 36, Susana Carvalho, 44, and Paulo Santos, 38 — were killed near Tábua when their vehicle skidded off the road and caught fire. A month earlier, a helicopter crashed into the Douro River near Lamego, killing five GNR officers aged between 29 and 45. Another helicopter crash in Castro Daire in August 2017 claimed pilot Américo Sousa, and in August 2025 a 45-year-old working for a private firefighting company died at Sabugal.

Why so many vehicle deaths? Road accidents are a leading killer of firefighters worldwide, often linked to speed and seat-belt misuse, and a 2020 LBP report found 41% of Portuguese firefighter deaths over four decades occurred while travelling in fire vehicles. On the fire line itself, sudden cardiac events — driven by heat stress, exertion, dehydration and shift work — are the top cause of on-duty deaths in the USA and occur in Portugal too.

For travellers, the context matters: Portugal's fire season now brings hotter, longer and larger fires, especially in July-September in the inland north and centre. If you're holidaying in rural Portugal during summer, check alerts from the ICNF and civil protection agency (Proteção Civil), follow evacuation instructions promptly, avoid lighting any fires or barbecues in restricted areas, and don't drive on forest roads near active blazes — smoke, poor visibility and emergency traffic make them genuinely dangerous. The human cost carried by local crews is a reminder to treat fire warnings seriously rather than as background noise.

Credit: Portugal Resident