The national emergency and civil protection commander guarantees that the combat device is prepared to respond to large-scale fires, but the objective is to “try to stop as much as possible” the fires when they are in the initial phase.
“What we have been doing is trying to stop as much as possible and reduce the number of fires that pass into the expanded attack [maior dimensão] and, if they move on to an expanded attack, here we are with the device prepared, with the technical training, that the expanded attack nowadays requires”, said André Fernandes, in an interview with the Lusa news agency.
At a time when the means of combating rural fires are reinforced and reach maximum capacity, the national commander of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) maintains that “the device is prepared”, but considers that the citizen also has an important role in adapting behavior in relation to the use of fire.
“The fewer ignitions there are, the less likely we are to have large fires and this is where we have also been gaining, not only with specialization, with the work that has been done in prevention and in the evolution and adaptation of the device, but above all, the Portuguese have been adapting their behavior to the situation of rural fires”, he stated.
The person responsible also highlighted that existing conditions and climate change have changed “the paradigm a little” in which “in this critical period there is a greater probability that a minimal occurrence can generate a large occurrence” .
Therefore, he stressed, the success of recent years has been the “muscular initial attack”.
“Fires are extinguished at birth. We cannot let the fire grow, so the device is sized according to the existing conditions. The device we have was designed, it is prepared to face the conditions we have in our territory, where there is still a large load of fuel”, he explained, highlighting the importance of using the resources available aerial, together with terrestrial ones, to “stop” a fire from the outset.
Asked about the increase in financial investment made in combat and the slowdown in prevention, the national commander responded that the conditions currently existing “are still, unfortunately, very favorable to the spread is from forest fires”.
“Obviously we also agree that there must be greater investment in prevention, but not at the cost of disinvestment in combat. When we have a territory fully prepared, resilient to fire, with capabilities and the mosaics in the landscape of fully implemented planning, then we can analyze the existing conditions and eventually we can reduce or adapt the device, whether aerial or terrestrial, but at this moment the existing conditions are visible to everyone and we still have a large fuel load “, he observed.
André Fernandes considered that the changes that are being made in the context of fire prevention “take years and decades to be made”.
The national commander also admitted that he was “It’s natural that in the coming years there will be some changes to the device, particularly the aerial one”highlighting that it is necessary to introduce another type of means, but it is not yet possible to quantify whether they will “be more or less”.
“That’s why the Portuguese State is going to buy two ‘Canadairs’ and we have identified the need to introduce so-called large tanks from an aviation point of view for water discharges with greater capacity, using retardants”, he stated, adding that ANEPC is working together with the Air Force and with the support of the Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF) in order to also understand the adaptation are from the existing C130.
André Fernandes said that it is necessary to adapt the device to “improve and maximize in light of the reality” of climate change. “The devices are not finalized,” he concluded.
