Month: August 2015

It was reported today (9th August) that a helicopter – an AS-350 B3 Ecureil – made an emergency landing after fighting a  fire in Valencia. The aircraft was en-route to Ponte da Barca, where it was based.

While flying over the Ponte de Lima municipality, it had a problem (yet to be identified) and as a result the pilot made an emergency landing at Lapa, Refoios parish of Lima.

The helicopter was carrying the pilot and five people reportedly to be GNR elements to combat fires. Two of the six occupants suffered minor injuries.

Two of the injured were assisted on site by the National Institute for Medical Emergencies (INEM).  The remaining passengers were transported overland to ULSAM of Viana do Castelo for observation.

The private aviation company Everjets responsible for the aircraft, has announced it will open “immediately” an investigation to ascertain the causes of the incident.

The accident represents an additional set back in air borne firefighting for forest fires this year. The most critical period of the fires from July to the end of September, began with three less heavy Kamov helicopters. Two have since been repaired

Following the contact with the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) held today, the 6th of August, the National Relief Operations Command (CNOS) of the National Civil Protection Authority (ANPC), is as follows:

Temperature – A gradual Increase in temperature with highs in the interior of around 40 ° C on Saturday and minimum above 20 ° C.

Wind – predominantly moderate north quadrant (<35 km / h) with gusts of around 50 km / h on the west coast in the afternoon. For tomorrow, 07 August it is forecast to intensify from the north  on the coast and in the highlands, where there may be gusts of around 65 km / h. This will be from the east quadrant in the morning and at the end of Saturday in the highlands.

Relative humidity of the air – remain <20% inside and tending to worsen in the coming days.

Fire risk – to remain in the wider territory levels “high” and “very high”.

Keep track of weather forecasts in www.ipma.pt.

ANPC notifies that, in accordance with the legal provisions in force, is not allowed in all rural areas:

• Carrying out fires, or fires for recreational or pleasure, or cooking food;
• Use of burning and combustion equipment for illumination or cooking food;
• Burn cut and piled woods and any surplus of exploitation;
• The release of balloons with burning fuse or any other type of rocket;
• Smoking or naked flames of any kind in forest areas and pathways that to circle;
• The fumigation or disinfection of apiaries with fumigators that are not equipped with sparks of restraint systems.

If you make agricultural and forestry work, keep the machinery and equipment clean oils and beware of the possibility of sparks during use.

The ANPC also advices appropriate behaviour and attitudes towards forest fire danger, particularly with the adoption of the necessary preventive and precautionary measures, observing the prohibitions in force and taking special attention to the evolution of fire danger for the next days, available from the Internet sites of the ANPC and IPMA, the Forestry Technical Offices of Municipalities and Fire Stations.

Taking into account the current meteorological situation, it is also possible this may affect the most vulnerable population groups (elderly and children, homeless and sick suffering from cardiorespiratory disorders) due to the heat. It is recommended that people observe the main measures of self-protection for these situations, as published by the Health General Directorate in www.dgs.pt.

Depending on the forecast weather trends can be expected:

Dry weather and moderate wind with the permanence of favourable conditions for the eventual occurrence and spread of forest fires.

 

The National Civil Protection Authority (ANPC) and the Safe Communities Portugal (SCP), a civil society organization that promotes awareness-raising initiatives in the fields of security and help with the English-speaking community residing or visiting the Algarve, have decided to join forces in order to provide information on the risk of forest fires and measures to be adopted if confronted with a fire to the English-speaking citizens who are visiting Portugal and our rural areas.

The materialized initiative in preparing a leaflet ‘Fire Safety in Rural Areas Tourists’.

Aware of the role and value that the information citizens have in building safer and more resilient communities, both institutions joined forces preparing a brochure in English with general information, useful advice and self-protection measures that are intended to provide tourists who visit us a more pleasant and profitable enjoyment of outdoor activities in contact with nature, such as camping, the caravan, walking, mountaineering, cycling, etc.

Francisco Grave Pereira, President of the ANPC, said that the position of Safe Communities Portugal is “illustrative of the enormous civic sense of the organization in civil society that reflects the careful attention it attaches to the safety and welfare of not only British visitors but, as the brochure features a wider target audience, this includes citizens of other nationalities and English speakers.”

David Thomas, President SCP, said that “since we are receiving more and more visitors in this country who engage in multiple and varied outdoor activities in contact with nature, it is important that they are aware of the preventive measures and precautions to take in order to be able to contribute to protect and defend the forests against fire “.

Besides the brochure that will be distributed in numerous public places further information is available either on site of the ANPC (www.prociv.pt) or at the site of SCP (www.safecommunitiesportugal.com).

The notice can be downloaded here

Police are advising Facebook users to watch out for a scam that tricks people into hacking into their own accounts.

The hoax works by telling people that following a series of instructions will guarantee them access to anybody’s account.

It tells victims to open up Facebook in a web browser and go to the Facebook page of the person they want to hack. Then, it says, the user should right-click anywhere on the page and from the popup menu select “Inspect Element”. This brings up an HTML editor at the bottom half of the web browser.

In this editor, the scam instructs readers to copy-paste a string of code given.

But far from giving the user access to another account, following the guidance merely provides the scammers with all the details they need to access the would-be hacker’s account.

Once the fraudsters are in control of a user’s account, they can use it to post more fake instructions, or launch new scams.

Facebook has warned users not to paste any strange code into browsers.

“If you see this kind of scam on Facebook, you should report it by clicking the arrow in the upper-right corner of the post and selecting ‘This is Spam.’

“If you have fallen victim to this scam, you should contact Facebook immediately and consider changing your password.”

The Judicial Police, through the National Unity Combating Drug Trafficking, conducted an operation that has succeeded in dismantling the European component and part of the South American component of a highly organized transcontinental criminal association, which was engaged in covert cocaine trafficking originating in Brazil and destined for Europe.

The criminal organization in question, composed of Brazilian and Portuguese nationals., carrying out their crimes in both countries. The investigation was conducted over a period of about a year. and culminated with the arrest of five men, as well as the seizure of 491 kg of cocaine, four motor vehicles, several thousand euros and foreign currencies, a large amount of telecommunications equipment and information technology, several firearms including a pistol, two rifles and a shotgun, hundreds of ammunition, among other goods and objects resulting from their criminal activity.

The five detainees, aged between 32 and 52 years, were presented at the first judicial interrogation and four have been placed under remand in custody and a fifth confined to his residence and prohibition of contact with the other suspects. The investigation is continuing in the context of international cooperation.

On 31st July the Judicial Police, through the National Unit to Combat Drug Trafficking (UNCTE), conducted an operation that succeeded in breaking up an organized group dedicated to cocaine trafficking. The criminal organization concerned, consisting of Portuguese individuals, were involved in importing the drugs to Portugal from South America by air.

Following an 8 month investigation, the operation led to the arrest of two men, as well as the seizure of 9.5 kilograms of cocaine, two top range motor vehicles and other goods and objects resulting from their criminal activity. The detainees, aged 54 and 58 years old, were present at the first judicial interrogation.

On 31^st July the Setúbal GNR Traffic Detachment conducted a surveillance operation on the A2 motorway checking both north and southbound vehicles, aimed at road racing in the area.

During the operation some of the drivers involved tried to evade the GNR interception points, performed dangerous manoeuvres including reversing against the direction of travel. During the speed control operation one vehicle, a modified 1993 Honda Civic, was recorded at travelling at 243km / h. The vehicle a driver were intercepted 12 kms from the radar point. Drivers caught were fined between €500 and 1000,

Eight men three of them British, the remainder being Dutch, Canadian and Swiss were sentenced to imprisonment from between 6 – 10 years recently for their involvement in a drug trafficking case in the Algarve in July 2014.

The men were arrested in Lagos by the Judicial Police after attempting to import 167 kgs of Cocaine which was landed at Sines. The drugs had a value of around 8 million euros and was destined for distribution in Europe. The Dutch national received 10 years; a British national 8 years for receiving and the crew from between 6-9 years.

It was announced on 1st August by a SEF union representative that the SEF Inspectors have decided to suspend strike action because they have reached an agreement with government. They had demanded equal treatment with the PSP and GNR.

In mid-July, inspectors announced several strikes if the Government did not find a solution to end “discrimination” compared to the GNR and PSP in respect of the General Labour Law on Civil Servants. According to the president of the Research Career Union and Monitoring of Foreigners and Borders Service ( SCIF / SEF), Acacio Pereira, the law has allowed the inspectors to be treated “in a discriminatory manner on issues such as evaluation of the performance, availability and even administrative practices.” The law equates inspectors to other civil servants and are not assigned the exception status granted to the other two security forces. Thus, an officer of the PSP or GNR working under the European Agency for borders (Frontex) “receives compensation at 100% while a SEF inspector receives 60 % of that.

After several meetings, the union reached an agreement with the government on Wednesday and therefore decided to suspend the strike, “state secretaries of Interior and Public Administration undertook to recommend to Council of Ministers measures to end discrimination “.

The action planned for August would have resulted in severe disruption at airports at the peak of the tourist season.