Civil Protection revealed that, from 8 to 14 July, 9098 occurrences were recorded.

According to national commander André Fernandes, more than 33000 operatives participated in these events, supported by 8000 vehicles.

Number of occurrences is the highest in the last five years.

“Managing the available resources in such a context is a huge challenge” because, due to the current weather conditions, any ignition generates a violent fire.

José Luís Carneiro (Minister of Internal Administration) revealed at a press conference that fires are being extinguished in less than 90 minutes. Therefore, the resources “are having a degree of effectiveness in the order of 90%”.

This means that the “Portuguese firefighters” and the Civil Protection resources have “shown great effectiveness in the fight to these occurrences”.

The Secretary of State for Internal Administration Patrícia Gaspar explained about the EU Civil Protection Mechanism response that “almost all countries in southern Europe are facing the same problem with fires”. That’s why the Spanish planes came and went on the same day and that for now only Italy was able to send support.