Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 26^th April 2023.

Good morning – Firstly I hope all those who were able to take a holiday yesterday, known as Carnation Day, had a relaxing time with some very good weather in many areas.

It was pleasing to note that there were surprising few rural fires despite an increase in temperatures and the fire risk. So far so good.  However over the next few days the temperature is set to rise well above average for April, although it appears Spain will suffer the most, with temperature of 40C forecast.

Although in Portugal it is likely to be in the region of 30C to 35C in some parts , these sorts of temperatures in April do not bode well for the summer, when we could experience heatwaves similar or more intense that last year, according to a recent statement by the Minister of Internal Administration.

In fact according to the IPMA “This will be the third heatwave of the month, if it occurs,” said Bruno Café, the first heatwave having taken place between April 2nd and 11th and the second between April 15th and 20th. According to IPMA, a heatwave occurs when maximum temperatures are at least five degrees above the average maximum temperature for six consecutive days.

Although a great deal of preparatory work has been done to tackle fires when they occur, such as addition resources (human and financial – plus more aircraft to combat fires, it is essential that the community also does its part through land cleaning. Just 5 days to go before the deadline.

During the last week, the specialist who studied the fires of 2017, Pro. Domingos Xavier Viegas, warned that, despite the occurrence of large fires being more “probable” in the Centre and North regions of Portugal, these phenomena can happen “everywhere”.

He added “Our experience shows that they can occur practically everywhere. In the regions of Central and Northern Portugal, where the topography is more complex and the vegetation is more prone to fires, it is more likely, but we have already seen large fires in regions where, at the outset, it was not expected”.

Recognizing that the country has learned some lessons from the fires of 2017, in which 114 people died, the specialist who was part of the Independent Technical Observatory and coordinated the studies requested by the Government on those fires considers, however, that it has not been “enough”, and there is “a long way to go”.

Although this was interpreted by some media that Portugal in some way is ill prepared to fight fires, this is far from the truth. As Prof. Veigas says, there is more to be learned by the scientific community and operationally how fire behave under such intense conditions and this is an issue not just in Portugal, but overseas as well. This is why there are groups such as FirEUrisk” funded by the EC which comprise various experts to study phenomena such as this, to come up with recommendations to address these problems. Safe Communities is privileged to be a member of the FirEurisk observatory and this has enabled us to be involved in the debate examining these issues as well as others.

So over the next few says with more extreme weather conditions and exposed fire risk, let’s make every effort to prevent fires and reduce the risk of them threatening rural communities – step one land cleaning!

With that our team wish you a safe week ahead.

News

Turkey honours Portuguese team that supported rescues after earthquake

The President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, honored, this Tuesday, in Ankara, the Joint Operational Force (FOCON) that fulfilled in Turkey the mission of supporting search and rescue operations after the violent earthquake of February 6th.

The head of mission of the Portuguese force, Commander José Guilherme, received the decoration insignia from Turkey, also awarded to the other international teams that were in the country to help with search and rescue work, says the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) ), in a press release.

The Joint Operational Force (FOCON), coordinated by ANEPC and made up of 52 members of the Special Civil Protection Force of ANEPC, GNR, Lisbon Firefighters’ Regiment and National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) and six dogs, was more than a week in the Turkish city of Antakya/Hatay.

Dozens of countries continue to evacuate citizens from Sudan

A total of 138 citizens were rescued”, including “87 Ukrainians, mostly aviation specialists – pilots, technicians and their family members”, as well as “citizens of Georgia and Peru”, the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defence, Ukrain published in a Telegram.

Also today, the Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs announced the withdrawal of 700 citizens from the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, with the departure of a train carrying 211 Pakistanis, adding to those who had already been transported on Monday.

According to the ministry, before this operation, 1,500 Pakistanis were in Sudan.

India today evacuated 278 citizens aboard a Navy ship that will take them to the Saudi city of Jeddah, said the spokesman for the Ministry of India, Arindam Bagchi, in a publication on the social network ‘Twitter’.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi quantified last week that more than 3,000 Indians reside in Sudan.

Operations to evacuate Indian citizens from Sudan began on Monday, sending two military planes to Khartoum and a navy vessel to Port Sudan.

According to the latest balance released by the agency France-Press (AFP) dozens of countries are withdrawing citizens, taking advantage of a 72-hour ceasefire decreed by the belligerents.

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, announced that by the end of Monday, another 1,200 European citizens had been removed from the approximately 1,500 who lived in the country in conflict.