The year 2023 was the first year ever without fatalities resulting from forest fires and bushfires, the Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF) highlighted today.
«I think we should celebrate 2023 because it is the first year in which we have zero fatalities, whether civilians, operational, or even people who were caught burning and burning», AGIF president Tiago Oliveira told journalists.
According to data released by AGIF at the press conference presenting the main results of the 2023 Integrated Rural Fire Management System, in 2018 13 people died, 12 of which were civilians as a result of fires, in 2019 10 died due to fires, in 2020 There were nine fatalities, six of which were combat operations.
In 2021, the number of fatalities fell to six (four due to fires) and in 2022 to four.
The president of AGIF also highlighted the reduction in fires in the summer months and the reduction in the burned area, which was 34.419 hectares as of October 15, the fourth lowest figure since 2000.
Tiago Oliveira explained that the weather conditions were not as severe as in 2018 and 2022, but there was also a greater “device management capacity”.
This year, 7.635 rural fires broke out, 26% less than in 2022, which consumed 34.419 hectares, a reduction of 69% compared to 2022.
«In the last six years we managed to reduce the burned area by a third and reduce the number of fires by half», he said, maintaining that «the year 2023 confirms the trends that have been observed» in the last six years, which he justified with investment in prevention.
The president of AGIF said that Portugal has “a joint strategy, planning and programming at various levels”, namely national, regional and sub-regional, in addition to quarterly monitoring.
«The behavior of the Portuguese, whether in the management of fuel around the houses, or also in the reduction in the number of fires in the middle of summer, shows that people have realized the risk involved in using fire on difficult days», he said.
The person in charge also said that the result is due to a group of entities, namely municipalities, parishes and operators, who “struggled to ensure that the main objective was achieved”, with only two major fires having been recorded this year with more than a thousand hectares, when the average in recent years was seven homes.
At the press conference, the president of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) Duarte Costa also said that the success was due to the Portuguese, as well as the greater number of combat means, greater training capacity, creation of multidisciplinary teams and constant commitment to the professionalization of volunteer firefighters.
AGIF also outlined the objectives for 2024, which include reinforcing incentives for owners and associations, ensuring the quality of decision-making and management capacity in the efficient and effective use of resources, reviewing processes to improve system performance, mobilizing entities to the execution of projects planned at national, regional and sub-regional levels, recovering burnt areas and increasing the area with forestry, extensive pastoralism and the area treated with controlled fire.
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