Given the weather forecast for the coming days, which point to a significant worsening of the risk of rural fire, the Portuguese State determined this Sunday the Order establishing the Declaration of the Alert Situation throughout the mainland.
The Alert Situation covers the period between 20h00 on the 2nd of August and 23h59 on the 4th of August.
This declaration arises from the need to adopt preventive measures and special reaction to the maximum and very high fire risk predicted by IPMA in most municipalities of the mainland in the coming days.
Under the Declaration of the Alert Situation, provided for in the Basic Law on Civil Protection, the following exceptional measures will be implemented
1) Prohibition of access, circulation and permanence inside the forest spaces previously defined in the Municipal Plans for Forest Fire Defence, as well as on forest paths, rural paths and other routes that cross them;
2) Prohibition to carry out burning of undergrowth;
3) Total ban on the use of fireworks or other pyrotechnic artefacts, regardless of the way they are burnt, as well as the suspension of authorisations that have been issued in districts where a Special Red Level Alert State has been declared by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority
4) Prohibition of carrying out work in forest areas and other rural areas using metal blade or disc brush cutters, brush cutters, shredders and machines with blades or front shovels.
The prohibition does not cover
1) Work associated with the feeding and watering of animals, phytosanitary treatment or fertilisation, watering, pruning, harvesting and transporting of agricultural crops, provided that these are of an essential and unpostponable nature and are carried out in irrigated areas or areas devoid of forests, woods or inflammable materials, and from which there is no danger of ignition;
2) The harvesting of cork by manual methods and the extraction (cresting) of honey provided that it is carried out without recourse to methods of fumigation obtained by means of incandescent material or temperature generators
3) Civil construction works, provided that they cannot be postponed and that adequate mitigation measures for rural fire risk are adopted.
The declaration of the alert situation implies, among other aspects
A) An increase in the degree of readiness and operational response by the GNR and PSP, with the reinforcement of resources for surveillance, inspection, behavioural deterrent patrols and general support to protection and rescue operations that may be triggered, considering that, for this purpose, the interruption of holiday leave and the suspension of days off and rest periods are authorised;
B) The increase in the degree of readiness and mobilization of medical emergency, public health and psychosocial support teams, by the competent entities in the areas of health and social security, through the respective supervision
C) The permanent mobilisation of the Forest Fire Fighting Teams;
D) The permanent mobilisation of the National Corps of Forestry Agents and the Nature Wardens that are part of the fire prevention and combat system, by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, I. P., through their respective supervisory bodies
E) Air patrols (surveillance) and aerial surveillance carried out by the GNR using Air Force resources in the SIOPS special alert districts for DECIR, focusing on locations marked with a very high and maximum fire risk.
The Air Force - through the Ministry of National Defence - must provide the aerial resources to be operational in locations determined by the ANEPC, in addition to the warnings issued to the population by the National Civil Protection Authority on the danger of rural fires.