The ‘Safe Village, Safe People’ program aims to protect populated areas and forests from rural fires by creating and managing protection zones and refuge areas, having been implemented in four other villages within this municipality in the district of Aveiro.
The emergency plan for the village of Gavião includes identifying escape routes, water points for firefighters, and collective shelter and refuge sites, such as the village chapel.
In its development, “the Municipal Civil Protection, in collaboration with Radar Social, conducted a demographic survey to identify residents with physical limitations and collected crucial data like emergency contacts and medication,” a municipal note states.
According to the Albergaria-a-Velha City Council, local structures such as houses, warehouses, and water points were also mapped.
As part of the “Safe Village, Safe People” program, on the 13th, the municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha, in partnership with the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, the Parish Council, volunteer firefighters, and the GNR, will conduct a series of awareness activities aimed at the population of the village of Gavião.
The activities will include a firefighters’ equipment exhibition at 10:00 a.m., followed by a public session on fire burns and the presentation of the “Safe Village, Safe People” program at the chapel at 11:00 a.m.
In the afternoon, at 2:30 p.m., there will be a rural fire drill and evacuation of the village.
Gavião is the fifth village in the municipality to join the program, following Carvalhal, Vila Nova de Fusos, Vilarinho de São Roque, and Fontão.
