Based on the information provided by the ANPC, the leaflets are in English, Swedish, French, German, Norwegian and Italian. Some of the Embassies representing these countries have uploaded the documents for their nationals.
David Thomas, President of Safe communities Portugal, stated that it was important to create awareness amongst tourists, especially those from cooler northern European countries, of the laws in place concerning the prohibition of lighting fires in certain areas especially during the Critical Fire Period and outside this period when the fire risk is either “Very High” or “Extreme”.
Consolidating various other pieces of the information on the Safe Communities website plus other information from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, (ICNF) and other official sources, SCP has also drawn up a comprehensive forest fire prevention document in English. This includes, both the laws in Portugal concerning the cleaning of land and what can be done if a neighbour refuses to clean their land; the distances that should be cleaned to reduce the risk of fires reaching properties and the laws concerning prohibition of the public to enter various forest areas and special zones in Portugal, during the Critical Fire Period.
David Thomas explained that many people may not be aware of the laws regarding areas, such as forest areas and other designated zones where there is prohibited access to the public, as well as the exceptions to these.
In stressing the importance of awareness, he noted that the provisional report of the ICNF had revealed that between 1 January and 31 July of this year, forest fires have already consumed more than 128,000 hectares. It is the largest area burned in the same period in the last decade.
Altogether, 8539 occurrences were recorded, the fifth highest value of the last 10 years. Of these, 1,925 concerned forest fires and 6,614 other rural fires.
Safe Communities is seeking help on a voluntary basis for someone to undertake design work to make these leaflets more eye catching, so they can be reproduced for the benefit of the local community. If you or your business can help, please contact David Thomas at 913045093 or at info@safecommunitiesportugal.com
The fire prevention awareness can be downloaded from www.safecommunitiesportugal.com/civilprotection/forest