The mayor and fire commander of Figueiró dos Vinhos are asking for the Army’s intervention to help clear forest paths and clear forests in the face of the greater fire risk created by Storm Kristin.
“We are quite apprehensive about the season [de risco de incêndios] that’s coming, because we don’t have the resources as a municipality decimated by this storm. There are a lot of roads, a lot of forest paths, a lot of fallen trees”, the president of the Chamber of Figueiró dos Vinhos, Carlos Lopes, told the Lusa agency.
The mayor explained that the municipality has made “a huge effort with sappers working for the Chamber” to clear paths and forest, but revealed that he fears that, without other means, the territory will not reach summer “in the situation that would be recommended”.
“When the guardianship determines deadlines for quick cleanups, I don’t see how it will happen without intervention from national entities. That’s why I launch this request for support. The territory does not have human resources that can leave the land free from this type of gunpowder again”, stated Carlos Lopes.
The mayor, who felt the support of the Army after the passage of Storm Kristin, which would have affected more than a thousand homes in that municipality in the Leiria district, would like to see the Armed Forces mobilized again “for this phase”.
“In these municipalities there are no conditions to carry out the cleaning, whether public or private. It would be a good idea for resources from across the country to be mobilized for these unprotected areas”, he said.
Carlos Lopes recalled that the majority of owners are elderly or do not live in the municipality and admitted that “a few barrels of gunpowder” are starting to accumulate in Figueiró dos Vinhos, one of the municipalities most affected by the Pedrógão Grande fire in 2017.
To give an example of the difficulty in meeting needs, the mayor recalled that the municipality launched a public auction to clear 30 hectares of trees from the municipality’s forest where “not a tree was left standing” and that the winner does not guarantee that they will be able to “remove the woody material with the means they have in the coming months”, in a tender that prioritized the speed of the intervention.
The Fire Commander of Figueiró dos Vinhos and president of the Leiria Firefighters Federation, Jorge Martins, told Lusa that he has been raising awareness of this situation at every opportunity in different regional and national bodies linked to civil protection.
“With the roads already clean, we have difficulties in these areas to fight fires. So, it is an additional difficulty”, he highlighted.
Jorge Martins shared Carlos Lopes’ concern regarding the upcoming summer and considered that the current situation could put the safety of operators at risk, in addition to there being conditions for the fire to progress with more intensity and speed, given the fallen and dry fuel.
“These areas have a very long history, fires tend to be complicated and, when they start, they start violently. With road obstructions, the risk will be greater and the fire will spread much faster”, he warned.
Jorge Martins, who praised the Army’s work in clearing roads and recovering homes in the municipality after Kristin’s death, also considered that it would be “important, at this stage, for the military to provide support, especially because they have the material to do so”.
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