Tiago Petinga / Lusa
The Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves
Minister of Internal Administration talks about the new Command to prevent and fighting fires, which is already working. “That never happened.”
The Integrated Prevention and Operations Command (CIPO) is already work. CIPO is the structure created by the Government to prevent and combat fires; involves several entities.
1500 operatives are in the storm-affected areas, most vulnerable for the fire season. 400 pieces of equipment have already helped clean more than 3,000 km of roads, firebreaks and rural roads.
“This never happened in the country”, comments the Minister of Internal Administration: “What is also unprecedented is that we are deconstruct walls. What the President of the Republic says are condominiums.”
Luís Neves guarantees that this new Command no is a “matryoshka”; e resolve two problems at the same time: coordination e bureaucracy?”.
“We cannot live with this stigma that there are always problems. We are overcoming them”, analyzes the minister.
“For my part, any obstacle will be quickly removed. The vision must be global and not look at the navel of each one of us.”
CIPO was created by the Government mainly to answer a question: “Where is it most urgent for us to intervene?”.
The headquarters of the Command is in Leiria. When the Summer, and if there is a moment of “great and extraordinary difficulties, the Command is ready to continue in the combat phase”.
To avoid failures similar to those that occurred in last year’s blackout and this year’s storms, there will be changes in the Integrated System of Emergency and Security Networks in Portugal (SIRESP).
“We have another redundancy that we will announce within a few days. We will make very qualitative leaps from the point of view of effectiveness, response and reach”, announced Luís Neves.
The Minister of Internal Administration revealed that SIRESP will have “more equipment, more relays, and all those who need it will have the channels, the equipment to communicate” – and there is funding.
Even with these reinforcements, Luís Neves does not hesitate: “The Summer will be very hard“.
Therefore, the appeal to owners of the land, especially in the areas most affected by the January storms: “We ask for your collaboration in cleaning and in clearing our forests. The territory needs to be cleaned.”
“I am still worried, but optimistic, heading into the summer”, commented the Minister of Internal Affairs.
