Portugal requested aircraft from France and Greece, but they were already busy
The Minister of Internal Administration, José Luís Carneiro, revealed this Thursday that Portugal asked France and Greece to send fire-fighting means and that this request did not receive a positive response.
The national regulator, which, in the case of Portugal, the country could not help as it was dealing with “intense forest fires” in its own territory.
In the case of Greece, the country already has investors in its air assets in support of fighting “intense fires” in Albania and Croatia.
Portugal had, under the European Civil Protection Mechanism, two Spanish aircraft to participate in the firefighting and which, in the meantime, had to return to their country of origin to respond to “intense and serious” nationals.
subscribe newsletter
At a press conference at the Civil Protection headquarters, José Luís Carneiro also stressed that “all the resources” in the country for fighting fires can be mobilized under the contingency state, which was extended until Sunday.
The Minister of Internal Administration met with the ministers of Social Security, Health, Environment and Climate Action and Food Agriculture to assess whether they were approved under the Declaration of Contingency Situation, a meeting that will be repeated next Sunday morning.