Human activity remains the predominant cause of rural fires in the Leiria region, Carlos Guerra, the Sub-regional Commander for Emergency and Civil Protection, has told Lusa news agency today.
“It should be noted that 76% of the established causes are due to human activity, which is truly concerning, particularly with regard to the burning of brushwood and the use of machinery,” said Guerra, citing data from the National Republican Guard.
Authorities recorded 270 rural fires that burned 68 hectares up to October 15 this year (compared with 180 fires in 2025, which burned 616 hectares).
Leiria recorded the most fires (106), followed by Pombal (55), Marinha Grande (28), and Porto de Mós (24). In terms of area burnt, Pombal (27 hectares) and Leiria (23 hectares) had the highest figures.
Arson (30 %), including the burning of piles of forest or agricultural waste (21 %), the use of machinery (13 %) and transport and communications (12 %) are the most prominent causes of fires in the Leiria Region, the territory of which covers 10 municipalities: Alvaiázere, Ansião, Batalha, Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Leiria, Marinha Grande, Pedrógão Grande, Pombal and Porto de Mós.
Carlos Guerra highlighted the increase in fires caused by ‘transport and communications’, which may be directly linked to damage to the (electricity) networks caused by Storm Kristin, which severely affected this area at the end of January.
The commander emphasised that the Leiria Region must reduce incidents in which three of four events stem from human action, whether through carelessness, negligence, malice, or wilful intent.
“We must be concerned about this”, he said. The objective is to “have a forest that thrives free from the impact of negligent human action” – because if this could be achieved, “we would be well on the way to being able to manage rural fires effectively.”
Guerra gave the example of three or four incidents occurring simultaneously, all caused by human negligence.
“People might say they are small fires, posing no danger at all, but that very danger which people claim does not exist forces us to deploy resources in exactly the same way as if it were a major fire”. It can tie up resources needed elsewhere, thus the necessity “to break this cycle of human-caused fires”.
The three largest fires in the Leiria region this year occurred in the villages of Netos (July 25, with 19 hectares burnt) and Carriço (August 4, with four hectares burnt), both in the municipality of Pombal. Also on September 3, in Picaminho (Porto de Mós, with six hectares destroyed).
According to Carlos Guerra, the main constraints in firefighting are, above all, the “increase in the number of incidents and the growing shortage of human resources across the various agencies, both for reinforcing operations theatres and for setting up permanent teams”.
Carlos Guerra also emphasised that the “pioneers” behind the results achieved this year are all the operational staff who “were present at or provided support for the operations”, convinced that “without their spirit of sacrifice and total dedication” the figures would have been very different.
Source: LUSA