Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro said this Sunday that an assessment of the biggest fires of the year will be carried out as soon as the Serra da Estrela fire is extinguished.
“The Secretary of State for Civil Protection has prepared a dispatch to assess the structural causes and management of this year’s largest fires as soon as the Serra da Estrela fire is considered extinguished,” he said. José Luis Carneiro, at the ceremonial meeting dedicated to the Day of the Municipality of Batalha (Leiria District).
According to the official, this assessment will be made “not as something new, but as a development of the practice adopted since 2017 and developed at the initiative of the National Office for Emergency Situations and Civil Protection and the AGIF itself. [Agência para a Gestão Integrada de Fogos Rurais]who is responsible for overseeing these matters.”
The fire in Serra da Estrela, which started on the 6th in Covilha and was extinguished a week later, on the night of Friday (12th), covered an area between the districts of Castelo Branco and Guarda, which can exceed 14 thousand hectares. preliminary official data.
At 13:50 today, 850 operational personnel remained on the ground, supported by more than 200 vehicles and five aircraft. On Saturday, civil protection officials estimated that the fire could be extinguished in two days.
The Minister added that based on the assessment experience gained since 2017, when the fires in Pedrogan Grande (June) and in several areas of the Central Region (October), which claimed the lives of more than a hundred people, will be considered “a regular and permanent assessment team, consisting of from all entities participating in the national system, as well as research centers, in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.”
On the other hand, he assured that “in autumn and winter”, after this difficult phase has been passed, work is underway on a European forum for the exchange of best practices in the field of climate change adaptation in order to prevent and combat rural fires. .
Emphasizing that these decisions, “the contours of which have taken shape over the past few months, should be seen as the development and deepening of a culture of continuous learning, which should be regular and systematic”, José Luis Carneiro added: “No one knows everything and we are all always learning, if we have an open mind and spirit to accept experience as a source of knowledge.”
He previously warned of weather forecasts that “conditions conducive to the spread of fires will continue,” asking everyone to “behave with great responsibility.”
“This does not mean placing responsibility on society and refusing the responsibility of the state. This means that we all need to understand that this is indeed our shared responsibility,” he continued.
Noting that “all specialists acknowledge that since 2017 there has been a very significant evolution in three dimensions”, José Luis Carneiro explained that they concern “the knowledge of fires and the research carried out on the basis of this knowledge”, as well as with the evolution “in coordination and cooperation between all participants in the system”.
Added to these aspects are advances in technological, human and financial resources, he said, noting that “the proof is in the results.”
“More than 90% of fires in 2022 are under control within 90 minutes, which means the response is effective. About 90% of fires cover an area of about one hectare,” he noted, acknowledging that “10% of fires are still not enough to turn into big fires.”
For the Minister of Internal Affairs, “it is necessary to work here, develop knowledge” and improve methods.
Author: morning Post
Source: CM Jornal
