The Minister of Defense today highlighted the role of the Armed Forces in preventing and detecting rural fires, after accompanying a patrol in the national forest, in Marinha Grande.
“The military are not in barracks, they are working every day for the benefit of the population. This applies to fire prevention, as it does to search and rescue, medical emergencies, organ transportation, combating human trafficking or drug trafficking,” Nuno Melo told reporters.
For the Defense Minister, the “Armed Forces are always there and that’s very important”.
Nuno Melo explained that the role of the military is to “detect fires, in collaboration with the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests [ICNF], together with other entities, so that, in an articulated way, this mission is more effective”, so that at the end of the fire season “they haven’t happened”.
And if they haven’t happened, it’s because “there has been prevention and that prevention takes a lot of work and involves a lot of investment and a lot of coordinated effort”.
According to the data presented, there are 32 patrols monitoring the forest, supporting the ICNF. “We also have engineering detachments, which are essential for shaping the terrain so that the firefighters can attack the fire itself. Then we have our platoons, which carry out the aftermath, surveillance and mitigate possible reignitions,” explained Colonel Tiago Lopes, commander of the Emergency Military Support Unit.
Nuno Melo stressed that his presence on one of the patrols is a way of showing the Portuguese that “the military in peacetime carry out multiple tasks for the daily benefit of the population and among these tasks, fire prevention actions”.
“And when fires don’t happen in Portugal, it’s often precisely because the armed forces, along with other entities, are engaged in these actions, which are fundamental,” he said.
With a protocol with nine municipalities (Braga, Boticas, Loulé, Mafra, Monchique, São Brás de Alportel, Sintra, Tavira and Viana do Castelo), Nuno Melo downplays the low number of municipalities that have an agreement with the army.
“I wouldn’t say it’s exactly short, if we take into account that the military are in the most critical areas. The risk of fire is nationwide, but there are places that are more at risk than others and the military are certainly at the points of greatest risk, making their contribution,” he said, guaranteeing that the Armed Forces, “by vocation and nature” are “available for whatever they can do when called upon.”
Since May 15, when the Armed Forces joined the support plan for the Special Plan to Combat Rural Fires (DECIR), 659 patrols have been deployed to monitor the national territory, covering 86,000 kilometers, with a total of 1,500 military personnel involved.
Confronted with the military professional associations’ complaints, Nuno Melo reiterated that his Secretary of State Álvaro Castelo Branco received and listened to them, “delivered a set of specifications”, and that “several of these proposals were taken into account and many improvements ended up happening”.
“So [associations] were listened to. They were even more than that, they were listened to. It’s important that everyone is considered, because everyone is absolutely essential. And I’m very pleased with what have been very fair victories for the security forces as well,” he said.
