Civil Protection has a helicopter in Faro as of today, increasing the number of aerial means to fight rural fires in the Algarve to six, the Regional Command announced.
In a statement, the Algarve Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Command said that the availability of air resources to fight rural fires was increased with the arrival this morning of a Kamov-32 heavy bomber helicopter to the “new temporary Air Means Center of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), installed next to the Faro Region Supply Market (MARF)”.
In this way, Civil Protection now has six aircraft assigned “to the air device operating from the Algarve region, between airplanes and helicopters to fight rural fires”, reads the note.
The helicopter, which is at the service of ANEPC since 21 June, It has so far been stationed at Air Base No. 11 in Beja, “Given the expansion and upgrading works of the Helicopter Base in Permanent Service (BHSP) Algarve, installed in the Municipal Heliport Loulé and whose completion deadline slipped plate, for reasons beyond the control of the State, for the month of December “, also adds the Algarve regional command.
Stressing the “importance of the proximity of this differentiated means for expanded attack on the most vulnerable areas to fire danger in the barrocal and serra of the eastern Algarve, during the coming months”, the regional command states that the delay in the completion of the works in Loulé led to the installation, in the parish of Estoi, municipality of Faro, of the Heliport of Faro – Alternative Municipal Heliport of Loulé.
This location, assures the Civil Protection of the Algarve, “maintains the criteria of regional centrality, accessibility and operational safety”.
In addition, the installation of the air facility in Faro will also benefit from “existing infrastructures, easily adapted to logistical needs, and which have been approved by the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC)”, with a “lower cost of execution and faster readiness”, it is said.
