The ministers of National Defence, Internal Administration, Environment and Climate Action and Agriculture determined, this Sunday, the Dispatch that establishes the Declaration of Alert Situation throughout the continent, in view of the weather forecasts for the coming days, which point to a significant increase in the risk of rural fire.
The Alert Situation covers the period between 20:00 pm this Sunday, August 2nd, and 23:59 pm on the 4th.
This statement "results from the need to adopt preventive and special measures to react against the maximum and very high fire risk foreseen by IPMA in most of the continent's municipalities in the coming days", explains the Ministry of Internal Administration in a note sent to the newsrooms.
Within the scope of the Alert Status Declaration, provided for in the Basic Civil Protection Law, the following will be implemented exceptional measures:
1) Prohibition of access, circulation and permanence inside the forest spaces previously defined in the Municipal Fire Protection Plans, as well as in forest paths, rural paths and other roads that cross them;
2) Prohibition of carrying out fires and burning of exploration leftovers;
3) Total ban on the use of fireworks or other pyrotechnic artifacts, regardless of their form of combustion, as well as the suspension of permits that have been issued in the districts where the Special Alert Status of Red Level has been declared by the Authority National Emergency and Civil Protection;
4) Prohibition of carrying out work in forest areas and other rural areas using blade or metal disc mowers, brush cutters, shredders and machines with blades or front shovel.
The ban does not cover:
1) Work associated with feeding and watering animals, phytosanitary treatment or fertilization, watering, pruning, harvesting and transporting agricultural crops, provided that they are of an essential and unavoidable nature and are developed in irrigated areas or areas without forests, woods or flammable materials, and from which there is no danger of ignition;
2) The extraction of cork by manual methods and the extraction (cresting) of honey, provided that it is carried out without recourse to fumigation methods obtained by means of incandescent material or temperature generator;
3) Civil construction works, as long as they cannot be postponed and that adequate rural fire risk mitigation measures are adopted.
The declaration of the alert situation implies, among other things:
A) The increase in the degree of operational readiness and response by the GNR and PSP, with reinforcement of means for surveillance, inspection, behavior-deterring patrols and general support for protection and relief operations that may be triggered , considering for this purpose authorized the interruption of the vacation leave and the suspension of days off and rest periods;
B) The increase in the degree of readiness and mobilization of emergency medical teams, public health and psychosocial support, by the competent authorities in the areas of health and social security, through their respective tutelage;
C) The permanent mobilization of the Sapadores Florestais teams;
D) The permanent mobilization of the National Corps of Forestry Agents and Nature Watchers who are part of the device for preventing and fighting fires, by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, IP, through the respective tutelage;
E) The performance by the GNR of patrol actions (surveillance) and aerial inspection through the means of the Air Force, in the districts in a special state of alert of SIOPS, for DECIR, focusing on places marked with a very high and maximum fire risk .
In addition to the issuance of warnings to the population by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority about the danger of rural fire, the Air Force - through the Ministry of National Defense - must make available air resources to, in case of need, be operational at the locations to be determined by ANEPC.
Comments