Data from Eurostat reveals that in 2021, Portugal had 14,037 professional firefighters employed out of a total of 365,071 in the community space as a whole, representing 0.2% of employment in the EU.

"The fires raging across Europe have devastated thousands of hectares of land in France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, putting firefighters in the affected countries to the test", states Eurostat.

According to the EU Statistical Office, Estonia, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia had, last year, around 0.4% of the total employment of these professionals, registering the highest percentage of firefighters in their respective workforce.

In terms of age, most professional firefighters were between 30 and 54 years old, out of a total of 264,600 in 2021, followed by the age groups of over 55 years old (50,300) and 15 to 29 years old (50,100).