"Our Civil Defence has been working hard so that the fire season runs smoothly", said the Mayor of Vila Nova de Famalicão, Mário Passos, last Friday in Vilarinho das Cambas, where he accompanied the work of the Civil Defence Operational Team, "a demanding and meritorious work".
"The device that is on the ground is alert and attentive to the various situations that may represent a threat to our territory, however, we should also not forget that prevention is in everyone's hands," stressed the mayor, aware of the importance of the role of civil society in this process.
The municipal fire suppression surveillance and support device has nine operatives, forestry tools, first intervention kits with 500 litres, a backhoe, a 6000 litre tractor tank, a video surveillance system and a forestry sappers team of five members.
It should be noted that, in the first quarter of this year alone, within the scope of the Municipal Forest Defence Plan (2021-2030), 76.4 hectares of fuel management strips were already executed, a protection perimeter that facilitates firefighting intervention and limits its progress. Of these, around 60 ha refer to industrial areas. Additionally, 29.75 ha were also carried out in the municipality's ceded areas.
In terms of improvements to the forestry road network by the operational team, in the first quarter of 2023, an extension corresponding to 2 kilometres was intervened on. In 2022, a total of 103 ha of fuel management strips and 6 km of forest road improvement works were carried out.
It should be noted that the Municipal Operational Plan, which defines the strategy for preventing and fighting forest fires and regulates the articulation between municipal and district entities and bodies, namely the municipality's Fire Brigades, PSP, GNR, Forest Guards, Municipal Police and the Municipal Civil Defence Service, was approved on 24 April, during the meeting of the Municipal Commission for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires.
The team's operational base is based at the Civil Protection Campus in Bairro, an infrastructure where forest video surveillance is carried out and where a Regional Logistical Support Base and an Aerial Means Centre are based, the result of a protocol with ANEPC - National Authority for Emergency and Civil Defence.