Prime Minister António Costa travels to Coimbra, Luz and Viseu on Monday to “verify the operation on site and demonstrate all the resources and means to fight the fires,” as announced this Sunday.
According to the program published by the Prime Minister’s Office, on the day that Portugal goes into an emergency due to the risk of fires, António Costa will be at 9:30 am in Coimbra to visit the Operations and Command Post of the Emergency. Emergency Security Unit (UEPS) of the Republican National Guard (GNR).
At 10:45 a.m., the chief executive will be at the Luz Aviation Facilities Center in the Coimbra area, where he will visit “a fire brigade in a preliminary position, a UEPS headquarters and an Air Force coordination helicopter.”
In the Coimbra region, António Costa is also scheduled to visit at 12:00 “the observation post of the work carried out by the sapper teams of the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests in Aigra Velha/Lusa.”
In the afternoon, the Prime Minister will visit the UEPS Extended Attack Company (CATE) in Viseu at 15:30.
On all these trips, the Prime Minister will be accompanied by Interior Ministers José Luis Carneiro and Environment and Climate Ministers Duarte Cordeiro, as well as the President of the Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management (AGIF), Thiago Oliveira.
According to Antonio Costa’s office, the purpose of the visit is to “check the operation on site and show all the resources and means to extinguish the fires.”
The announcement comes after the government decided on Saturday to declare a Monday-Friday emergency, allowing Civil Protection to mobilize “every means available to the country” to fight the fires.
The decision to declare a state of emergency was made in connection with weather forecasts for the coming days, “which indicate a worsening risk of fires in rural areas,” and will imply strengthening the organization of fire departments, according to a statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) released this Sunday. involving up to 100 new brigades, among other activities.
On Saturday, José Luis Carneiro indicated that the civil defense resorted to the figure of contingency for the first time because of these circumstances.
Also due to the risk of fire, António Costa canceled his official trip to Mozambique on Saturday, where he was scheduled to attend the 5th Luso-Mozambique Summit, which was scheduled to take place from Monday to Tuesday.
The President of the Republic also canceled on Saturday a trip to New York, USA, scheduled to take place from Monday to Thursday, also “due to the very high risk of wildfires.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
