In a headline that will have certain quarters snorting in derision, Lusa news agency writes that the ‘government acknowledges some lack of coordination in fighting fires’ that have relentlessly assailed the country since the start of the month.
In an interview with SIC Notícias last night, when asked if there had been a lack of preparation for what has turned out to be a devastating fire season, Rui Rocha – secretary of state for civil protection – said: “We can acknowledge, here or at another time, because of what I note, the complexity of the theatres of operations, that there may have been some momentary mismatch”.
“I think that the response of the unit, the way it has responded, despite all these incidents, has been positive. With the gaps that we’ve seen, but, trying to balance the entire national system.”
Rocha explained that this year there have been “abnormal circumstances”, such as dry thunderstorms and convective winds, which have aggravated the situation, emphasising that there is ‘no memory in this century of such a prolonged period of adverse weather conditions’.
As to the situation of alert, imposed on August 3, this has now ended, and will not be prolonged because temperatures will drop and humidity will increase, said the secretary of state, adding that another reason for not extending the various prohibitions was because of “some activities that are conditioned” (namely people who need to work with machinery in rural areas, and companies who organise firework displays at summer ‘festas’) .
Regarding the almost daily lamentations by populations filmed by television teams racing backwards and forwards with hoses/ buckets and beating implements, Rocha admitted to “four or five large fires”, which had mobilised a lot of operatives and that, as a result, the population often doesn’t receive immediate help.
As for the statements made by the president of the Portuguese Fire Brigades League, António Nunes, about the lack of a national commander in recent days, Rui Rocha seemed to disagree, saying that the national commander HAS been informing the population about the situation on an almost daily basis, often travelling to the affected areas.
In what was clearly a ‘damage limitation exercise’, the secretary of state also addressed criticism that the government only activated European Civil Protection Mechanism after more than two weeks of raging infernos in which local mayors were seen calling for more resources, in some cases quite desperately: he dubbed the European mechanism “a mechanism of last resort”, stressing that Brussels “doesn’t have a batch of aircraft available to distribute” to member states.
“When we learnt that two Canadairs had broken down, we immediately tried to reach a bilateral agreement with Spain. Support was immediately provided with the two Canadairs, not from Spain, but from the Kingdom of Morocco, which will be here until tomorrow,” he said. “After the European mechanism was activated, we were able to get a pair of fire bosses from Sweden, who were already operating today (Tuesday), and we had information today that a heavy helicopter could also arrive from tomorrow (Wednesday).”
According to Rui Rocha, the big problem in these fires has not been the lack of aerial resources, but the fact that firefighting aircraft cannot operate due to the conditions (intense smoke/ lack of visibility).
“That’s the greatest anguish we have,” he said. “Realising that we have the means, but that we don’t have the conditions at very crucial moments for a given theatre of operations.”
In the interview Rui Rocha also said that the Ministers for the Economy, Cohesion and Agriculture are already “surveying and studying how to support” people affected by the fires.
As to the immediate future, Rocha seemed confident: “We currently have five active fires. This is a much smaller number than what plagued us in previous instances, with 10 or 12 fires. Therefore, we are confident that it will also be possible to find a way to rest the fire system, which must be, if I may say so, but has been at full capacity for 25 days. Therefore, I am certain that with more favorable weather conditions, we will also be able to balance any potential incidents that may arise”.
This will have been an uncomfortable interview for Rui Rocha, and one that some might think should have been directed at the Minister for Internal Administration whose visibility during this drama has been deeply criticised.
Questioned over the minister’s silence yesterday, President Marcelo pointed out that Maria Lúcia Amaral has only been in her post for a couple of months, and that “those who are in difficult situations are not always able to perceive the importance of the media and respond accordingly”.
Marcelo did acknowledge however that a great deal will need to be done once these fires are over to find a ‘better way’ for the whole system of Portuguese firefighting: “It is crucial that everyone does their best together to find a system that learns from the lessons (of this summer) – and there are already many lessons we can learn,” he told reporters.
Source: LUSA/ SIC
