The government today extended the critical period of fires until October 10, under the Forest Fire Defence System, due to the forecast of dry and hot weather, the executive announced today.

In an order of the Secretary of State for Forests and Rural Development, Miguel Freitas, published today in Diário da República, it is stated that the critical period is extended until October 10 due to the forecast of “maintaining the risk of rural fire at high levels”. .

The most critical fireworks season ended today, with a reduction in resources in the first half of October, which would be greater from the 15th.

At stake are “probable weather conditions for the first 10 days of October, temperatures above the standard for the season, a low probability of precipitation with a below-average rainfall level forecast, with a tendency to dry and hot weather throughout the national territory ”, is mentioned in the order.

Thus, according to the Government’s note, during the critical period of fire, in forest or agricultural spaces, smoking, firing or burning fires, burning or burning, launching rockets and burning balloons and fumigating or disinfecting apiaries is prohibited, unless the fumigators are equipped with spark arresters.

It is also prohibited to circulate, or use, tractors, machinery and heavy transport vehicles that do not have a fire extinguisher, spark or spark arrest system and flame arrestors in the exhaust pipes or chimneys.

Data available on the website of the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) indicates that this year, until September 27, 10,289 rural fires broke out, reaching 41,006 hectares, 51% of forest stands, 38% of forests and 11 % of agriculture.

As of July 1, a total of 4,888 rural fires had struck, affecting 9,705 hectares of forests, 41% of them in forest stands, 43% in bushland and 17% in agricultural areas.