Last updated on April 27, 2020
Welcome To Portugal Wildfires
Why Portugal wildfires and not Portugal forest fires? A wildfire is a fire in any area of combustible vegetation that occurs in the wilderness or rural area. Then depending on the type of vegetation where it occurs, a wildfire can also be classified more specifically as a brush fire, bush fire, desert fire, forest fire, grass fire, etc.
Figures vary slightly, but in 2017, the total burnt area in Portugal was 456,209 hectares, of which 60% was forest and 40% was not forest, such as scrub, bush and natural pasture, etc. Sources: Portuguese Environment Agency and ICNF. So with over 180,000 hectares of non-forest burnt, the term ‘forest fire’ is not particularly accurate. However in the new post-fire structure of integrated ‘defence system against forest fires’, ‘rural fires’ is the term commonly deployed.
This website was only started in an effort to help people who live close to stands of forest with masses of ground fuel that posed a fire risk to their homes. It became clear that householders, trying to create their legal 50 metre fuel break around their homes or the 100 metre fuel break around their village, were unsure how to proceed when they had non-compliant, often absent and unknown, neighbours with unmanaged land that intruded into their fuel break zone. As the 15 March deadline for land cleaning has passed and if no action has been taken on the offending land near you, you can skip straight to where we give a step by step guide on how to legally get land cleaned in Portugal.
Are trees really more important than human beings?
The more we learnt about wildfires in Portugal – on the number of fires, the size of burnt areas, the millions lost to the economy, the ‘villainous’ eucalyptus and even the number of burnt houses – the more obvious was the only fleeting mention of the loss of human life. Most of the scientific research and expertise of such bodies as ICNF and SEPNA (as it says on the tins) are devoted to the forests and their defence from wildfires. Very little attention seems to be paid to the problem of fire safety of the humans who happen to live in the ‘urban-rural interface’. Surely humans deserve priority and maximum fire protection, rather than the trees.
So who is supposed to look after humans threatened by wildfire? The answer is the ANPC – Autoridade Nacional de Proteção Civil.
“…mission is to plan, coordinate and execute the civil protection policy, namely in the prevention and response to major accidents and disasters, protection and relief of population and superintendence of firefighters, as well as to ensure the planning and coordination of national needs in the area of emergency civilian planning to deal with crisis or war situations.
ANPC pursues, in accordance with Decree-Law no. 73/2013 of May 31, as amended by Decree-Law no. 163/2014 of October 31, attributions in the scope of forecasting and risk management and planning of emergency, protection and rescue activities, firefighter activities, civil protection resources, and the application and enforcement of the applicable rules within the scope of their duties.” Source: ANPC (Emphasis added)
Their ‘protection and rescue activities’ were sadly lacking particularly when the ANPC themselves, declared the Pedrógão Grande fire out of control at 16.20 and when the wind direction dramatically changed at 18.00 on 17 June, suddenly placing dozens of small villages in the path of the out-of-control fire.
“The prospects of quickly dominating the fire were small, informed by its characteristics, by the reading of the conditions in which it evolved and by the weather forecasts. Thus, the necessary protective measures (provisions on traffic on the road network, rural population, preparation of evacuations) should have been considered sooner from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm and completed at 6:00 pm”. CTI Report
When the The CTI Report cites “the inability of the SDFCI to recognise and / or respond timely and adequately to conditions that would be faced during the 17th is the genesis of the tragedy of Pedrógão Grande”, However, the Report does qualify this statement by saying the fire events that occurred at 20.00 on 17 June, were unpredictable – the extreme rarity of fires with pyrocumulonimbus formation having never been seen or experienced before in Europe, let alone Portugal.
Mark Beighley & A. C. Hyde conducted an extensive review of Portugal’s forest fire defence strategy following growing concerns about increased fire risks in the Southern European countries. Published February 2018.
Read in Portuguese or English:
Portugal Wildfire Management in a New Era Assessing Fire Risks, Resources and Reforms
Portugal wildfires in the future…
Before we forget the fire tragedy of 2017 and revert to comfortable complacency about wildfires, it is clear that we must have plans in place to protect ourselves, our homes, our animals, our neighbours and our villages from wildfires in Portugal. So much of the website is devoted to fuel management which is a good place to start in mitigating fires – starting from scratch in bare, burnt areas and preparing the currently green areas for future fires. Among other topics include ideas on making your house more fire-resistant, which is especially important if you live on a slope, through to the basics of how to use a water hose effectively on a fire.
The Portuguese Government is in the process of reacting to the recommendations of the CTI Report on the Pedrógão Grande and the CTI Report on the October 2017 fires recently published in March 2018. These include:
The creation of the AGIF – Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires which is responsible for the integrated analysis, planning, evaluation and strategic coordination of the SGIFR, including qualified intervention in high risk events.
We must now hope the Portuguese Government resists the temptation of fragmenting this new umbrella agency into numerous sub-divisions and sub-sub-divisions which may ultimately fail to work together effectively. However, it seems the first divisions of the AGIF have already been instituted (with the inevitable acronyms)…separating the defence of forests from the defence of humans and property.
- SGIFR – Sistema Integrado de Gestão de Incêndios Rurais / Integrated Management System of Rural Fires.
- GFR – Gestão de Fogos Rurais / Rural Fires Management, the defence-oriented and sustainability of forest spaces.
- PCIR – Proteção Contra Incêndios Rurais / Rural Fire Protection, for the safety of persons and property, including villages.
Villages at risk of forest fires are also to have a ‘safety officer’ who is responsible for warning residents of dangers, organising evacuations and running local awareness campaigns about fires. The ANPC is to distribute 10,000 self-protection kits and other equipment, identify suitable village fire shelters and oversee fire drills.
This mostly sounds good in theory but will take time, money and, possibly more importantly, a huge effort to win over the hearts minds and trust of the people who were let down in 2017.
We came across these words (below) written in a newspaper article which drives home the message… to us anyway… that we must make a really concerted effort this time to moderate the effects of wildfires in the future…
“We distribute. We publish decrees. We write beautiful texts about pain and tears. But after the summer comes the winter and no one moves a finger. Respect the dead of Pedrógão? So avoid the crocodile tears and the proclamation of great solutions from the couches of the capital. The best tribute we can pay to the dead is not pretending that your death was good for something. Did not serve. Uncontrolled fires will continue. The dead also”. João Miguel Tavares, Journalist
“Distribuímos afectos. Publicamos decretos. Escrevemos textos bonitos sobre dor e lágrimas. Mas após o Verão vem o Inverno e ninguém mexe uma palha. Querem respeitar os mortos de Pedrógão? Então evitem as lágrimas de crocodilo e a proclamação de grandes soluções a partir dos sofás da capital. A melhor homenagem que podemos prestar aos mortos é não fingir que a sua morte serviu para alguma coisa. Não serviu. Os fogos descontrolados vão continuar. Os mortos também”. João Miguel Tavares, Journalista
Header Photo: Patrícia de Melo Moreira
