António Costa was speaking to reporters at the end of a meeting with the California fire prevention and fighting authority, ‘Cal fire’ during a visit last week.
The prime minister began by noting that California has a fire service that is very different from the Portuguese one that has been based on volunteer firefighters for decades”.
We are looking at how we can exchange good practices and how we can learn from each other. In this meeting, I noticed how many of the questions that are raised here are exactly the same as the ones that we discussed in Portugal, he said.
The prime minister said the cooperation with California could help with incorporating new sources of information via satellite, forecasting models, fire dynamics and training.