Marcelo says Portugal has learned lessons from the 2017 bushfire tragedy

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said this Sunday that Portugal has learned lessons from the 2017 forest fire tragedy, both in terms of prevention and response capacity.

“The country has changed a lot. She changed in a traumatic way, it was a tragedy, but she realized that she had to change,” Marcelo Rebelo de Souza told reporters in Vouzel at the end of the city council’s tribute. victims of fires recorded six years ago.

The head of state emphasized that immediately after the tragedy, “people had to rebuild their lives” and the country “had to approach this problem differently.”

“He’s started to look at this, in some aspects, frankly better than what’s been going on so far,” he said, citing prevention, response capacity, coordination and “organization at all levels” as examples.

Other aspects, such as forestry planning and registration, take “much longer” and move “slower” given the complexity of the processes, he explained.

Marcelo Rebelo de Souza this Sunday morning took part in the laying of a wreath at the memorable monument, and then in the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Bishop of the Diocese of Viseu, Antonio Luciano.

The bishop recalled that fires in October 2017 in the municipality of Vouzela killed eight people, six of whom were local residents, and two more in an accident on the A25 motorway while “trying to escape” from the fire.

During his sermon, Antonio Luciano urged government officials to focus on prevention “so that fatal events will no longer torment people.”

The central region suffered the most from various fires that swept through the country between October 15 and 16, 2017, killing 50 people and spreading a trail of destruction to more than three dozen municipalities.

Seventy people were injured, about one and a half thousand houses were completely or partially destroyed, as well as more than 500 businesses.