Civil protection reinforces operations and calls for caution due to weather favorable to fires
A National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) this Saturday asked everyone to take special care with ignitions in the coming days due to forecasts of weather conditions favorable to the spread of fires.
At the ANEPC headquarters, in Carnaxide, Oeiras (Lisbon), the national commander of Emergency and Civil Protection, André Fernandes, revealed that the ‘orange’ state of readiness of resources was activated in the regions most affected by fires from this Saturdayextending to the entire country on Monday, due to weather forecasts that predict a decrease in relative humidity in the air and the existence of wind in the coming days.
According to André Fernandes, the weather will be “adverse to the danger of rural fires”, with the increase in temperature, relative humidity below 20% in most of the continental territory, with particular incidence on Monday and Tuesday, “and also with the wind predominating in the eastern quadrant up to 30 km per hour, being more intense in the highlands”.
“In view of this and in view of the reported worsening of the danger of forest fires, it was decided, from today onwards, to increase the state of special alert for the integrated rural firefighting device”, he stated, highlighting that this state of alert implies the increase of the device involving the various entities that collaborate or are part of Civil Protection and the reinforcement of surveillance and inspection measures, in addition to an appeal to everyone not to engage in risky behavior and to have “zero tolerance in the use of fire ”, reducing the number of ignitions.
Reinforcement of 662 operational
These operational determinations resulted in an increase of 662 operational personnel to the more than 14 thousand already on the groundhe explained.
The official highlighted that since Monday the number of ignitions has been increasing day by day, which was 98 on Friday, which is why he asked the population to take special care in the coming days.
“The number of nighttime ignitions has also been rising. For example, tonight we had 38 nocturnal ignitions, so once again we call on everyone to reduce the number of ignitions overall, but also, in particular, at night”, he added.
The most affected areas were the central region and, in particular, the northwest of the northern region, with the sub-regions of Ave, Cavado and Tâmega e Sousa with the highest number of ignitions and night ignitions.
In total, at 3 pm, around 2,170 operational personnel, more than 660 ground assets and 12 aerial assets were fighting the 49 fires that were raging in mainland Portugal.
The fire in Silvares, in the municipality of Fundão and district of Castelo Branco, was the most worrying, keeping 653 operational personnel, 212 vehicles and three air assets in the fight.
