“I think we should celebrate 2023 because it is the first year in which we have zero fatalities, whether that be civilians, operational, or even people who were caught amidst the fires,” the president of AGIF, Tiago Oliveira, told journalists.

According to data released by AGIF at the press conference presenting the main results of the 2023 Integrated Rural Fire Management System, in 2018: 13 people died, 12 of which were civilians as a result of fires, in 2019: 10 died due to fires. In 2020 there were nine fatalities, six of which were in combat operations.

In 2021 the number of fatalities fell to six (four due to fires) and in 2022 to four.

The president of AGIF also highlighted the reduction in fires in the summer months and the reduction in the burned area, which was 34,419 hectares as of October 15, the fourth lowest figure since 2000.

Tiago Oliveira explained that the weather conditions were not as severe as in 2018 and 2022, but there was also a greater “device management capacity”.

This year, 7,635 rural fires broke out, 26% less than in 2022, which consumed 34,419 hectares, a reduction of 69% compared to 2022.

“In the last six years we managed to reduce the burned area by a third and reduce the number of fires by half”, he said, maintaining that “the year 2023 confirms the trends that have been observed” in the last six years, which he justified with investment in prevention.

The president of AGIF said that Portugal has “a strategy, planning and joint programming at various levels”, namely national, regional and sub-regional, in addition to quarterly monitoring.

“The behavior of the Portuguese, whether in the management of fuel around homes or also in reducing the number of fires in the middle of summer, shows that people have realised the risk involved in using fire on hot days,” he said.

The official also said that the result is due to a group of entities, namely the municipalities, parishes and operators, who “struggled to ensure that the main objective was achieved”, with only two major fires having been recorded this year with more than a thousand hectares when the average in recent years was seven homes.

At the press conference, the president of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), Duarte Costa, also said that the success was due to the Portuguese, as well as the greater number of combat resources, more training capacity, creation of teams multidisciplinary and constant commitment to the professionalization of volunteer firefighters.

AGIF also outlined the objectives for 2024, which include reinforcing incentives for owners and associations, ensuring the quality of decision-making and management capacity in the efficient and effective use of resources, reviewing processes to improve system performance, mobilising entities to the execution of project planned at national, regional and sub-regional levels.