“Comparing the figures for the year 2024 with the historical figures for the previous 10 years, it is worth noting that there were 53% fewer rural fires and 86% fewer burnt areas compared to the annual average for the period. Up to 31 August 2024 will have the lowest number of fires and the lowest burnt area since 2014”, indicates the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) in its latest report.
The document states that between January 1 and August 31 of this year, a total of 4,457 rural fires were recorded, resulting in 10,294 hectares (ha) of burnt area, including settlements (3,655 ha), scrubland (5,126 ha) and agriculture (1,513 ha), while in the same period in 2023, 6,633 fires broke out, causing 32,557 ha of burnt area.
The provisional report also states that the most frequent fires this year resulted in a burnt area of less than one hectare (85% of the total), with one larger fire having occurred and accounting for a burnt area greater than or equal to 1,000 hectares.
“Large fires are considered whenever the total burnt area is equal to or greater than 100 hectares. By 31 August 2024, 13 fires were recorded in this category, resulting in 4,474 hectares of burnt area, around 43% of the total burnt area”, the report reads.
The largest number of fires broke out this year in the districts of Porto (845), Viana do Castelo (464) and Braga (372), but they are mostly small in size.
In turn, the districts with the largest burnt area are Bragança with 2,857 hectares, around 28% of the total area, followed by Viana do Castelo with 1,637 hectares (16% of the total) and Beja with 837 hectares (8% of the total).
The ICNF also highlights that, of the total of 4,457 rural fires recorded this year, 3,129 were investigated and concluded, with the investigation attributing a cause to 2,329.
According to the document, almost a third of the fires investigated were caused by arson, namely “incendiarism – attributable”, followed by burning and burning (13%).
The report also indicates that the month of August is the one with the highest number of rural fires, with a total of 1,757, which corresponds to 39% of the total recorded in the year, and this is also the month that records the largest area burned this year, 5,843 hectares.