Not since the year 2000 has Portugal seen a meteorological alignment so favourable to forest fires.
Persistently high temperatures, which in some parts of the country will breech the 40 degrees Celsius barrier over the weekend, coupled with an unusually dry spring, could put the country’s fire services through their paces.
The Portuguese Met office (IMPA) classified every month from December 2014 to June 2015 as having been ‘dry’ or ‘very dry’, and its forecast for the next fortnight points towards more dry and hot conditions that could potentially be rather problematic for fire-fighters.
However, the country’s national Civil Protection authority (ANPC) has said it is ready and prepared to deal with any eventualities.
The ‘Weather Severity Index’ – one of a number of guides used to depict forest fire risk conditions – is currently higher than it was in 2003, 2005 and 2013, all of which were classified as “catastrophic” years for Portugal in terms of the amount of land that burnt, a report in newspaper Público stated.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, José Manuel Moura, head of the ANPC’s Rescue Operations Command, affirmed that in terms of the weather, “this year is the most severe of the past sixteen years”.
Since the beginning of 2015 and until the end of last month, fires in Portugal had consumed 28,781 hectares of scrubland, according to figures from the Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation (INCF); the third highest figure of the past decade.
José Manuel Moura said that present weather conditions are capable of causing “big problems in a short space of time”: “We have fires flaring up in 20 minutes with incredible force”, he explained.
But, he added, so far the response to outbreaks has been positive.
“In no event has a fire burned for more than 24 hours” he stressed, adding that the average response time has been 12 minutes and most fires have been brought under control within just over half an hour.
This “muscled response”, Moura believes, has meant that many fires never even made news.
This month (August) started off with 383 fires within the first three days, the most challenging of which occurred in Oleiros.
Having raged from Monday morning until the following morning, Oleiros council estimated that between 500 and 700 hectares of land were destroyed by fire, which required the efforts of more than 600 fire-fighters to bring under control.
A large fire also broke out in Vilamoura, Algarve, on Wednesday afternoon near Praia da Falésia, which was fought by some 40 firemen and women from various local fire stations.
Despite having been brought under control within a matter of hours the fire broke out near a luxury tourist resort which was evacuated as a precaution because of dense smoke.
Meanwhile, the National Civil Protection Authority (ANPC) and the association Safe Communities Portugal (SCP) have joined forces to provide information on the risk of forest fires and measures to be adopted if confronted with a fire to English-speaking citizens who are visiting Portugal and its rural areas.
A brochure on ‘Fire Safety in Rural Areas for Visitors’ in English was the result of the partnership, providing general information, useful advice and self-protection measures that are intended to keep visitors and the great outdoors protected against fires.
David Thomas, founder of SCP, said that “since we are receiving more and more visitors in this country who engage in multiple and varied outdoor activities in contact with nature, it is important that they are aware of the preventive measures and precautions to take in order to be able to contribute to protect and defend the forests against fire.”
Francisco Grave Pereira, President of the ANPC, added that Safe Communities Portugal’s efforts are “illustrative of the enormous civic sense of the organisation in civil society, that reflects the careful attention it gives to the safety and welfare of not only British visitors but, as the brochure features a wider target audience, this includes citizens of other nationalities and English speakers.”
In related news, it has transpired that adverse weather conditions have also hindered the production of renewable energies in Portugal, with hydro-electric power production down 19 percent on last year.
Lusa News Agency reported that this was particularly due to the poor performance of Portugal’s network of dams.
And, whilst July was a good month for wind power, it proved insufficient to reverse the poor performance from earlier in the year.
To see the ANPC-SCP brochure, visit websites www.prociv.pt or www.safe communitiesportugal.com.