“We have faced challenges beyond our control, notably the Air Force tender that ended without participants, preventing us from having all the resources we would like in the short term,” said Rui Rocha to reporters.
The official was speaking at the end of a visit to the Logistics Support Base in Castelo Branco, where two European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (rescEU) aircraft are pre-positioned to combat rural fires, ready to intervene in Portugal and other countries within the European area.
The DECIR 2025 plan anticipated 79 aircraft, but currently, just days before the critical phase Delta begins (July 1 to September 30), there are still five aircraft that need to be secured.
“We are exploring the best solutions to somehow mitigate this shortage, with the intention of quickly launching a new tender so that, in the shortest possible time, we have all the resources programmed in DECIR 2025,” stated the Secretary of State for Civil Protection.
Rui Rocha acknowledged the most critical situation is in the Alentejo region, directly impacted by the lack of participants in the tender for five aircraft launched by the Air Force.
To address the situation, the official announced the relocation of an aircraft still under maintenance from Arcos de Valdez, in the district of Viana do Castelo, to Portalegre.
“Regarding other locations where aerial resources were expected but are unavailable due to the tender’s vacancy, we are operationally working to find a way to mitigate. We intend for the new tender to open quickly and conclude as swiftly as possible to deploy all the resources we believed would be available,” he noted.
From July 1, Portugal will also benefit from a pair of medium amphibious Fire Boss aircraft under the rescEU program to intervene whenever national response capabilities are insufficient in extreme situations.
These resources involve an investment of approximately 2.6 million euros, financed 75% by the European Commission, enhancing aerial firefighting capabilities.
The rescEU program was established under the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism to ensure a rapid, effective, and coordinated response to large-scale emergencies.
When asked about the report by the Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management (AGIF) on the 2024 fires, which highlights “chronic weaknesses” in cooperation among national and regional entities and in the command and control of operations, the Secretary of State for Civil Protection admitted not having read the document “with the full attention it deserves.”
