Our Role in civil protection
Safe Communities Portugal’s role includes helping to create public awareness in areas such as rural fire prevention and others areas involving public safety. Setting fire to rural areas such as forests, shrub lands and agricultural areas, whether deliberately or through negligence, can result in a major disaster with possible loss of life, injury and destruction of infrastructure, land and property. Much of this is preventable

The specific roles of Safe Communities Portugal in such circumstances is to support the work of the authorities such as the ANEPC (National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority), ICNF, Bombeiros, GNR and other agencies, by helping to disseminate information to all communities and visitors to Portugal through this website, our newsletter and various seminars and displays.

To keep up to date with matters concerning forest fires, the UV index, fire risk, earthquake activity and weather click the bars to the right of this page. We have also, in liaison with the ANEPC, added links to some of the best meteorological websites sites on each our pages so you can obtain quality information and maps showing current and forecast conditions.

Everyone has a role to play, ranging from helping to prevent rural fires, removing leaves from guttering to help prevent flooding to checking on the elderly neighbours to see if they are OK in very hot weather! Learn more in our specific pages and help keep you community safe.

Safe Communities was invited in January 2022 to participate in the 7th National Resilient City Conference in Odemira. A copy of SCP presentation can be down loaded here:

Presentation Odemira January 2023

If you need to contact the Bombeiros for any reason (except emergencies when you should use 112) then click here for the full list of stations.

Role of the ANEPC
Civil Protection is the activity carried-out by the State, Autonomous Regions and Local Authorities, by citizens and by all public and private entities, with the aim of preventing collective risks that causes serious accidents or disasters, to attenuate its effects and to protect and help people and property in danger, whenever those situations occur. This is coordinated by the ANEPC.

Known previously as the ANPC, it became known officially as the ANEPC on 1st April 2019, the “E” denoting its coordinating role during emergencies.

Civil protection objectives are to: rescue and to assist people in danger; protect cultural and environmental assets and other assets of high public interest and to support the re-establishment of normality in the life of people living in the areas affected by serious accidents or disasters. Its responsibilities are:

• Survey, forecast, evaluation and prevention of collective risks;
• Permanent analysis of vulnerabilities facing risk situations;
• Information and training of the population in order to raise awareness for self-protection measures and for the necessity of collaborating with the authorities;
• Emergency planning, search and rescue, providing aid and assistance, as well as evacuation, lodging and population supplies;
• Inventory of resources, availability of means and the most suitable way to mobilise them, at the local, regional and national levels;
• Study and dissemination of adequate forms of protection of buildings in general, monuments and other cultural assets, infrastructures, archival patrimony, essential services facilities, as well as environmental and natural resources;
• Forecast and planning of actions concerning the eventual isolation of areas affected by risks.

The ANEPC produces daily information on its website concerning the location and details of rural fires and other major incidents in Portugal. It is important especially during the dry season to check this information to ascertain the location of such fires and occurrences to avoid travelling to these areas. If you are in these areas these pages also keep you up to date with developments concerning the deployment of emergency services. Simply click “Rural Fires” and “Other occurrences” to obtain the daily information.

Civil Protection Agents

There are a number of civil protection agents  under civil protection law which form part of the structure in terms of operational deployment in emergencies and catastrophes. These include Bombeiros, GNR, INEM, IPMA, the armed Forces for example. There details and work can be found and downloaded here. 

Restructuring of ANEPC wef 4th January 2023

Alto Minho Sub-Regional Command, in Viana do Castelo;

Sub-Regional Command of Alto Tâmega and Barroso, in Chaves;

Sub-Regional Command of the Porto Metropolitan Area, in Porto;

Sub-Regional Ave Command, in Fafe;

Cávado Sub-Regional Command, in Braga;

Douro Sub-Regional Command, in Vila Real;

Sub-Regional Command of Tâmega and Sousa, in Baião;

Sub-Regional Command of the Lands of Tras-os-Montes, in Bragança;

  Lower Edge Sub-Regional Command, in Castelo Branco;

Sub-Regional Command of the Beiras and Serra da Star, in the Guarda;

Sub-Regional Command of the Aveiro Region, in Aveiro;

Coimbra Region Sub-Regional Command, in Coimbra;

Sub-Regional Command of the Leiria Region, in Leiria;

Viseu Sub-Regional Command Dão Laf andoes, in Viseu;

Greater Lisbon Sub-Regional Command, in Lisbon;

Sub-Regional Command of the Setúbal Peninsula, in Palmela;

Sub-Regional Command of Lezíria do Tejo, in Almeirim;

Sub-Regional Command of Medium Tejo, in Vila Nova da Barquinha;

Western Sub-Regional Command, in Caldas da Queen;

Sub-Regional Command of Alentejo Central, in Évora;

Sub-Regional Command of Alentejo Litoral, in Grândola;

Alto Alentejo Sub-Regional Command, in Portalegre;

Lower Alentejo Sub-Regional Command, in Beja;

Algarve Sub-Regional Command, in Loulé.

IPMA

The IMPA is also provides extensive weather information including daily air temperatures in your area; this can be found here.

Windfinder specializes in wind, waves, tides and weather reports and forecasts for wind related sports like kite surfing, windsurfing, surfing, sailing or paragliding.
These are the real-time measurements from weather stations in Portugal. Check the current wind and weather observations when travelling to Portugal or during a vacation or sailing trip. The wind report map for Portugal gives you an overview to find the best conditions before heading to the beach, surf spot or launch site to go kiteboarding, windsurfing, surfing, sailing or paragliding.

Natural and Man Made Disasters
Natural and man-made disasters affect the lives of European citizens, the European economy and the environment every year. Whether of natural or man-made origin, disasters are becoming increasingly extreme and complex, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change in our interlinked economies, and are by nature irrespective of national borders. There is a need to support the improvement of European capacities to assess risk, as the first step towards the development of disaster prevention and emergency plans, while allowing European countries to assess their levels of preparedness and capabilities to manage disasters. In the context of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM)1 , the European Commission has established a cross-sectoral overview of natural and man-made disaster risks the Union may face. this can be downloaded here.

Emergency planning
Since 2008 all ANEPC District and Municipal emergency plans that have been approved have been available in the Emergency Planning Information System for the public and can be downloaded here.

In May 2015 we produced a comprehensive newsletter about forest fires, the critical fire period, how and when to clean your land and contacting the emergency services. Download here to obtain your copy.
All prevention and protective information is from official sources.