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According to the Secretary of State for Internal Administration, the alert situation implies reinforcing the availability of the means and agents that participate in the prevention and combat operations of rural fires and “the activation of coordination structures, both at the national level, or in the districts where this declaration applies ”.
“We are fully prepared to respond to possible situations,” said Patrícia Gaspar, highlighting “zero tolerance to the use of fire” as a critical success factor, reinforcing the call to all Portuguese to “reduce to the maximum” the occurrences of rural fire.
According to the national operational commander of ANEPC, Duarte da Costa, in addition to the orange special alert status (the second highest on a scale of four) for all districts north of the Tagus River, including Portalegre, they will be in a special alert state. yellow. the other districts of the continent, namely Setúbal, Évora, Beja and Faro.
“As a result of the declaration of the alert situation issued by the Government, the warning is perfectly exhaustive: it is not allowed to use fire in rural areas,” emphasized Duarte da Costa.
Regarding field operations, the ANEPC national operational commander said that “they are precisely the same” that exist in the entire Special Fire Fighting Devices program for 2020, but with “a higher level of commitment, greater availability and greater capacity ”, that is, the relocation of attack groups, increasing the capacity and predisposition for attack and operational response, including the use of aerial means.
In a situation of alert, burning and fire and the use of fireworks or other pyrotechnic devices are prohibited, as well as access, circulation and permanence in forest spaces “previously defined in the Municipal Plans for the Defense of the Forest Against Fires”.
Forestry and rural work with electrical equipment, such as motorcyclists, cutters, shredders and machines with front blades or shovels is also not allowed.
However, animal feeding, pruning, irrigation, cork and honey extraction and harvesting of agricultural crops are allowed, provided they are “essential and urgent”, in irrigated areas, without flammable materials and outside forest. and kills. Civil construction works are also allowed, “as long as they cannot be postponed and adequate measures are taken to mitigate the risk of rural fire.”
