Sernancelhe, Portugal, Aug. 19, 2025 (Lusa) - The municipality of Sernancelhe is facing major communication limitations due to the fires. There is no internet or mobile network from MEO, the other networks are still working, and the damage is incalculable, several residents told Lusa.

"We're here like this, forgotten by everyone. We have no internet, no telephone, no television. We have nothing. We didn't have firefighters either, nobody to help us. What we saved was the people who got together and saved us, otherwise it would have burned down," a resident of Sernancelhe, in the district of Viseu, told Lusa on Tuesday.

Maria Rita added that "people are borrowing each other's mobile phones to talk to their families and for the most urgent situations".

"But this is very sad. It has been like this since Thursday night, and it's now Tuesday!" she added.

In the centre of the town of Sernancelhe, one resident said it was "unbelievable" that so many people were out of contact for so many days. "A lot of people have MEO and it doesn't work, it looks like the fibre cables have burnt down," she lamented.

Next door, in the café, another resident added: "The other operators are still working, they have a problem or another, but you can always get through."

Another problem, they said, is that they can't get into the billing system, i.e. the customer needs to leave their tax number and "one day there will be a bill" for those days.

"We don't know when," said a café owner who requested anonymity, because "it's more likely that the tax office will turn up next" to inspect. "We're not to blame for this situation, but we can't stop doing business either," he added.

The Senhora da Lapa Sanctuary was supposed to host "one of the biggest festivals" on 15 August, which attracts "thousands of people" every year, but this year the flames were the guests.

"Have you seen it? Everything around here is black; it's too black. Who wants to come here now? There's a smell of burning and we no longer have our green landscape for people to picnic in," lamented one of the residents.

All the people Lusa spoke to had suffered losses as a result of the fires, whether it was in the olive groves, orchards or pine forests, "family heirlooms and livelihoods" these days.

Maria Rita didn't hide her indignation at seeing everything go up in flames, the pine forests and groves, the olive groves that were the livelihood of generations going up in flames, with no firefighters to help or save them.

"There have been many fires here, but like this one... We've never seen anything like it," the locals also said.

On the road, you can see the black horizon from the municipality of Sátão to Sernancelhe and even Penedono, with smoke from fallen logs, the façades of houses and businesses and vehicles "lost" on the ground. All black.

The scenery is identical in Aguiar da Beira. This municipality borders Sernancelhe (both in the district of Viseu) - the people don't care about administrative borders, everyone there is a neighbour.

"In Quinta do Meio [Aguiar da Beira], there were nine of us that night, saving the whole population. Fortunately, we succeeded," said one resident.

Luísa Neves, from Sernancelhe, said that "the big problem was a lack of coordination, because there were areas where they set fire and stopped the fire, but the firefighters weren't authorised to do it everywhere".

In his opinion, if they had set a counter-fire in Fumadinha and Quinta do Meio, "on the road, so that nobody was in danger, the fire wouldn't have gone on to Mouções and Gradiz" (still in Aguiar da Beira), and then on to Granjal (Sernancelhe).

"You won't find anyone who hasn't suffered in some way from this fire," was also heard during the report.

The Lusa news agency tried to speak to the mayor of Sernancelhe, Carlos Santos, who was not at the town hall because he was "on the ground with the technicians" and the lack of communications meant he could not be contacted.

The fire that reached Sernancelhe originated from two fires - one that broke out on the 13th in Sátão and the other on the 9th in Trancoso, and on Friday (the 15th) they became one, spreading to several municipalities.

This included Sátão, Sernancelhe, Moimenta da Beira, Penedono and São João da Pesqueira (Viseu district); Aguiar da Beira, Trancoso, Fornos de Algodres, Mêda, Celorico da Beira and Vila Nova de Foz Côa (Guarda district).

The fire broke out at 22:00 on Sunday, 17 August.

IYN/ADB // ADB.

Lusa