The interior minister on Tuesday declined to comment on the Firemen’s League’s demand that the government fire the president of the Integrated Rural Fire Management Agency (AGIF), saying only that he understood Thiago Oliveira’s explanation.
On the sidelines of the 156th anniversary of the Porto PSP District Command celebrated in Gondomar, José Luis Carneiro defended the need to “invest more in prevention” than in fire control, stressing that there will be “more” in 2023 human, material and air resources to fight the fire.
On Tuesday, the League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) sent a letter to the prime minister demanding the resignation of the president of the rural fire management agency, Tiago Oliveira, claiming it was an “incorrigible breach of trust” after he was questioned in Parliament in July. what the “fire departments get from the burnt area”, considering it to be a “perverted target”.
The AGIF president also stressed that “there are municipalities that spend half a million euros, barbaric money, on firefighters when they don’t spend money on forest management”, which is necessary to balance prevention and control.
“I was able to hear the explanations of Dr. Thiago Oliveira, and he himself was able to remember that he did not want to offend either the mayors or the firefighters, because he recognized the decisive role of the firefighters and mayors in the national civil protection system,” he addressed the minister.
However, on a direct question about the resignation of Thiago Oliveira, the interior minister declined to comment.
According to José Luis Carneiro, “it is necessary to invest more in prevention than in combat, because in fact in combat most of the work has already been lost.”
“If we really want to solve the structural problem of fires in a sustainable way, there is work that has also been done, but it takes a long time to get results, namely the reorganization of the property (…), the Portuguese are aware that in order to face the drama of the fires, we must value the forest, we must value the structural policy (…). This is a work in progress and it takes a whole generation to achieve results,” he said.
Therefore, he argued, “it is necessary to continue and consolidate efforts to change the financing of prevention”, noting that in 2017 about 80% of funding was for control and 20% for prevention, and in 2022 60% of funding was for prevention. and 40% for combat.
“This work needs to be consolidated,” he stressed, recalling that the PPR, as part of this preventive work, has already made more than 50 arrests and identified more than 700 people.
José Luis Carneiro also denied criticism of the poor assessment of the current fire situation in Portugal, specifically in Odemir, where a fire broke out on Saturday.
“When defining an emergency, a set of technical and operational criteria must be met, this is not a matter of a strictly subjective nature,” he said.
According to the minister, “this is a scenario that must always be assessed in terms of weather and atmospheric conditions, and on the other hand, in relation to the number of fires in the country and in relation to humidity levels.” and wind”.
“Based on the evaluation of these indicators, we decided to create conditions for the device to demonstrate the ability to be effective due to the circumstances at the time of the decision. The assessment will continue and depending on the indicators, both the national commander and the national administration will propose decisions to be made later at the political level,” he assured.
The official also reminded that 2023 is the year when Portugal will have more means of fighting fires, namely air means.
“This year is the year when we have the most human and material resources, and also this is the year when we have the most air resources, I believe that the contract for the 71st aircraft was signed on Tuesday and we are working until 72 .I think we will be able to achieve this maximum goal. Last year we had 60 aircraft,” he said.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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