Almost 40% of forest fires in 2023 originated from burning and burning, in a year in which the number of fires is the second lowest in the decade and the burned area the third lowest, according to a report.
The report from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) indicates that between January 1st and October 15th of this year, 7.635 rural fires broke out, resulting in 34.420 hectares (ha) of burned area, among forest stands (19.281 ha) , bush (12.994 ha) and agriculture (2.145 ha).
The document states that 6.498 of the 7.635 rural fires recorded this year were investigated, with the process of investigating the causes of 85% of the fires and responsible for 94% of the total burned area having been completed.
“Of these, the investigation allowed the attribution of a cause to 4.519 fires (70% of the fires investigated – responsible for 67% of the total burned area)”, says the ICNF, adding that, to date, the most frequent causes in 2023 are the various types of fires and burnings (39%), followed by 'arsonism – imputable' (28%).
The report states that this year there were «43% fewer rural fires and 72% less burned area compared to the annual average» of the last 10 years, with the year 2023 having «the second lowest figure in terms of number of fires and the third lowest value of burned area since 2013».
Compared to the same period in 2022, this year there were 2.073 fewer forest fires and 75.490 fewer hectares burned, the document states, adding that, in the last decade, it was in 2021 that fewer fires broke out, totaling 6.163, and the area burning was lower in 2014 (22.544 ha), and in 2021 (27.129 ha).
According to the ICNF, 85% of this year's rural fires had a burned area of less than one hectare, with only four fires recorded with a burned area greater than or equal to 1000 hectares.
The biggest fires that occurred this year were Odemira, which started on August 05th and consumed 7.513 hectares, and Castelo Branco, which started on August 4th and burned 6.553 hectares.
The report also indicates that the districts with the highest number of fires this year are Porto (1.567), Braga (741) and Viana do Castelo (620), but in any case they are mostly small in size, while the most affected in area burned are Castelo Branco, with 7 hectares, around 432% of the total area, followed by Beja, with 22 hectares (5.914% of the total), and Braga with 17 hectares (2% of the total).
According to the ICNF, August was the month, to date, with the highest number of rural fires, with a total of 1.757 fires, as well as the month with the largest burned area, with 21.964 hectares, which corresponds to 64% of the total burned area recorded in the year.
In the first half of October, 489 fires broke out and consumed 1.476 hectares.
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