Since the 1st of June, when the Operational Plan for Fighting Rural Fires (POCIR) came into force, the Autonomous Region of Madeira has registered 154 occurrences, of which 80% – 123 – relate to unauthorised burning/fires.
The information was released by Pedro Ramos, Regional Secretary of Health and Civil Protection, during a visit to Santana. When asked about the illegal fires he added:
“Sometimes people are unaware of the dangers that can occur when they create a fire that is not authorised. It may be windier, it may be a warmer day with little humidity, and before you know it it’s running out of control and we have to act.”
Pedro Ramos said that, over these three months, about 1,500 teams were involved in POCIR, a total of 5,100 professionals, monitoring and covering the island’s mountain ranges.
“It is precisely with all this operational mechanism that we have on the ground, and with the collaboration of other entities, of which the COM- Operational Command of Madeira is one of them, that we have a control mechanism that works,” he stressed, adding that day and night surveillance has allowed greater security and identification of potential problems and situatons.
Pedro Ramos went on to say that the helicopter, which is permanently based in Madeira, has since the 1st of January 2023 been used for fire fighting and search and rescue missions.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
