FOREST FIRES IN PORT UGAL IN TIMES OF COVID-19

Abstract

The ignition and spread of forest fires in the first four months of each year, in Portugal, has been a reality since the seventies, framed by specific socio-economic conditions and only mitigated by meteorologic conditions that are clearly unfavourable to their occurrence. Indeed, the simple observation of the statistical data related to forest fires allows the verification of this phenomenon, with the year of 2020 having the lowest number of occurrences in relation to the previous five years (2015-2019). However, and even with apparently favourable meteorologic conditions, in the period of 2020 there was a drastic reduction in the number of ignitions and burnt areas throughout the continental territory. This fact is only justified by social factors, namely those associated with the pandemic situation, generated by COVID-19, by the sanitary conditions associated with it and the consequent confinement measures imposed by the Portuguese government, especially during the period of the State of Emergency.