The government has declared a “state of alert across the entire mainland territory” from midnight on Sunday, August 3, to 11:59 PM on Thursday, August 7, due to “the meteorological forecasts for the coming days, which indicate a significant increase in the risk of rural fires.”
This alert declaration “entails a set of exceptional measures,” detailed by the Minister of Internal Administration, Maria Lúcia Amaral, in a press release following Saturday’s press conference.
Thus, “in accordance with the state of alert declaration, as outlined in the Civil Protection Basic Law, the following exceptional measures will be implemented”:
- Prohibition of access, circulation, and presence in forest areas previously defined in the Municipal Forest Fire Defense Plans, as well as forest paths, rural paths, and other routes passing through them;
- Prohibition of burning and clearing debris from exploration, along with the suspension of any previously issued authorizations;
- Prohibition of work in forest areas using any type of machinery, except those associated with combating rural fires;
- Prohibition of work in other rural areas using brush cutter blades or metallic discs, hedge trimmers, and machines with blades or front shovels;
- Prohibition of using fireworks or other pyrotechnic devices, irrespective of their combustion method, and suspension of any issued authorizations.
However, the prohibition does not cover:
- Tasks related to feeding and watering animals, phytosanitary treatment or fertilization, irrigation, pruning, harvesting, and transporting agricultural crops, provided they are essential and urgent, conducted in irrigated areas or devoid of forests, woods, or flammable materials, and pose no ignition risk;
- Cork extraction by manual methods and honey collection (cresta), provided it is done without using fumigation methods with incandescent materials or heat generators;
- Construction work, provided it is urgent, and appropriate rural fire risk mitigation measures are taken;
- Agricultural crop harvesting operations using machines, such as combine harvesters, and forest exploitation operations for cutting, gathering, and transportation, performed between sunset and 11:00 AM, provided rural fire risk mitigation measures are taken, and the operation is communicated to the competent Municipal Civil Protection Service.
The declaration of the alert situation implies:
- Increasing the readiness and operational response of the National Republican Guard (GNR) and the Public Security Police (PSP), with additional resources for surveillance, inspection, deterrent patrolling, and general support operations for protection and rescue that may be triggered, allowing for vacation license interruption and suspension of days off and rest periods;
- Increasing the readiness and mobilization of emergency medical, public health, and social support teams by the relevant health and social security entities;
- Permanent mobilization of forest sappers teams within the firefighting device;
- Permanent mobilization of the National Forest Agents and Nature Watchers, part of the fire prevention and firefighting device, by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF);
- Raising the readiness level of response teams with special cooperation duty in communications (fixed and mobile network operators) and energy (transport and distribution);
- GNR conducting airborne surveillance and inspection actions via Armed Forces resources in districts under special alert, focusing on areas flagged with very high or maximum fire risk;
- Exemption from service or justified absences for workers, in public or private sectors, who also serve as volunteer firefighters, except for those in the Armed Forces, Security Forces, and the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), as well as in public emergency healthcare service, particularly pre-hospital emergency technicians and nurses from the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM);
- ANEPC will issue public warnings about rural fire dangers;
- The Armed Forces will provide aerial means, if necessary and available, to operate in locations determined by ANEPC.
