One country is setting an example when it comes to fire prevention. It is Portugal. In 2017, 119 people died in major fires. Since then, the country is trying to prevent another tragedy.
Huge fires, overwhelmed emergency services… In 2017, in central Portugal, 119 people lost their lives in their homes or trying to escape. The national tragedy was followed by a profound rethink. Over the past six years, the country has radically changed its fire prevention system. The number of forest fires has been cut in half. To better understand fires, a research center reproduces large fires on the ground or in a shed.
Fighting everything that feeds the fire
In Portugal’s inland villages, affected by desertification, clearing the undergrowth has become vital. The country is also resorting to ancestral methods, such as recruiting shepherds and their goats to eat the undergrowth. The local inhabitants, for their part, seem to be satisfied with this. Portugal’s goal is to limit the spread of the fires by attacking everything that feeds the fire.
In, France TV Info, 31 May 2023 (FR)
