Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Portugal

Portugal – Forest Fires (DG ECHO, CNOS) (ECHO Daily Flash of 13 August 2017)

  • Portugal continues to endure a very serious situation in terms of forest fires facing over 200 forest fires a day, mainly in central and northern part of the country.

  • On 12 August, 20:25 (UTC) Portugal activated the Union Civil Protection Mechanism requesting three Aerial forest firefighting modules and two Ground forest firefighting modules.

-Spain responded to the request on the 12 August at 21:20 (UTC) offering two Airtractor aircraft from the EU buffer capacity and two ground forest fighting modules shortly after at 23:11 (UTC). On the morning of the 13 August Spain offered a further one Canadair aircraft, at 07:32 (UTC). The offer has been accepted.

  • The first Ground Forest Firefighting module (composed of 54 personnel) and the Canadair aircraft left Spain for Portugal at around 08:00 (UTC) on the 13 August. Dispatching of second ground module and EU buffer capacity is in process.

  • Spain requested co-financing for EU buffer capacity deployment; for the remainder of assistance financial support was not requested.