The president of the Portuguese Association of Security and Civil Protection Technicians (Asprocivil) considered today, in parliament, “a strategic error by the Regional Government” of Madeira in not integrating the national plan to combat rural fires.
“Integration into the national plan was fundamental, and this is a strategic error by the regional government, which should not have been refused, but I know why they left it out, it is because if they were to integrate the plan they would have to comply with a series of rules that they do not comply with, this is the problem”, stated Ricardo Ribeiro.
The person in charge of Asprocivil, who was speaking at the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, at a hearing on the management of civil protection resources in the August 2024 fire in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, added that, with this decision, “the population is paying for this omission”.
“This integration favours the principle of subsidiarity of the system”, highlighted Ricardo Ribeiro, who despite not wanting to “get into party politics” admitted that “the subsidiarity of the system is not only” for sending resources, it also serves to verify whether it is “because they do not do their homework” that they ask for resources from the mainland, and “perhaps that was why they did not want them”.
In 2020, the Madeira authorities were invited to join the National Fire Management Plan, but they refused and also decided not to apply the legislation that regulates the Integrated Rural Fire Management System.
At the hearing, deputy Fabian Figueiredo, from the Left Bloc, questioned whether “for an effective fight against rural fires across the entire territory it is not more useful for the entire territory to be integrated” into the national plan, with “clear respect for regional autonomy”.
In addition to confirming that the resources must be activated as soon as possible, Ricardo Ribeiro, in response to the socialist Miguel Iglésias, said that the problem was not only in the statements made by regional officials that Canadair planes could not refuel, when “the ones that could not refuel were the helicopters, because the tanks where the bucket should be refueled were mostly damaged”, leading to more time being lost in refueling.
In this sense, in the conclusions and proposals, the Asprocivil leader announced the integration of support forces into the autonomous region’s SIRESP network, such as the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, the hiring of two heavy helicopters, in addition to the light ones, integration into the integrated rural fire management plan and the “deepening of protocols” with the islands that belong to the European Union.
The general secretary of the National Civil Protection Union, José Costa Velho, also present at the hearing, warned that “some Madeirans also do not like the forest, because otherwise they would take more care, both in prevention” and in the coordination of resources and planning, confirming that the cisterns used to supply the helicopter had “grass”, “earth” and “everything but water”.
For the union leader, their activity “does not have to be limited to workers’ problems”, but “have a global vision on all matters” and, therefore, they argue that “it is worth investing in the forest”.
Social Democrat Paula Margarido, for whom the hearing requested by the PS is “trampling on the Constitution” and “the powers of regional autonomous bodies”, when the legislative assembly of Madeira has already created a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the fires of August, questioned which was the “pioneering government” in the creation of the forest firefighter and noted that “forest police officers” in Madeira can “retire at the age of 60”.
The general secretary of the National Civil Protection Union downplayed the issue of the “paternity of the forest firefighters”, arguing that in this case they were also abandoned “at birth”, as “they never did anything for these workers”.