The simultaneous firework displays usually mark the climax of the Nossa Senhora da Conceição commemorations and Sons do Atlântico festival.
In a statement, Lagoa council explained the council had made the decision to scrap them “following the calamity that hit the Algarve with a wave of fires, since changes in the weather and strong wind could trigger new outbreaks of fire at any moment”.
The cancellation of the fireworks is also in “solidarity with the neighbouring counties and their populations”.
Lagoa council said “from the first instance” it has provided the “necessary support” to the victims of fires, “logistically and humanely, by providing buses to collect inhabitants who saw their lives endangered by the advancing of the flames”, and by “providing mattresses to equip the Portimão Arena, where several families stayed overnight until it was considered safe to return” to their homes following the fires.
Several similar calls have been made across the country, and petitions launched, for firework festivities to be scrapped and the budgets donated to firefighting services in light of recent events.
In 2016, the council of Paredes de Coura set the precedent when it cancelled its traditional annual summer firework display to mark the culmination of municipal festivities, and donated the sum that would have been spent on fireworks to fire-fighting services.
Petitions were launched for the same to be done in other areas including Lavra, Matosinhos and Leça da Palmeira, as well as São Bartolomeu de Ponte da Barca.