So now we are in the panel that answers the initial question – What are the main causes of fires in Portugal?

The data is from January 2013 to September 2022, for mainland Portugal, provided by the Nature Conservation and Forests Institute.

Another point that we have to look at is the hazard, which shows us whether we are going to have a high probability of burning and that if it burns, we are going to have a very strong wildfire.

For example there the exceptional thing is the extreme hazard and we also have, for example, the low or reduced, which is green, so we have this gradation of colours.

So now let’s look at the data:

The traditional use of fire has 26 thousand occurrences. It means they are small fires or at least they are data from firefighters going out to extinguish fires. But let’s see what the hazard was. It was moderate because it is almost always in yellow.

If we look at the intentional, we will have 23 thousand occurrences. Less than the traditional one, but we have meteorology which is very dangerous.

If we look at the burned area, we see that despite these 26 thousand occurrences in the traditional use we will only have 133 thousand hectares burned. Instead, if we look at intentional, we’re going to have almost five times the area of traditional fire use, so we’re going to have 525 thousand hectares.

This means that the intentional is the main cause in terms of area. In terms of occurrences, it is the traditional use of fire.

We must not forget that in Portugal we have a long tradition of burning, not only for pasture renewal,but also to make small agricultural fires or to make bonfires, those burning of leftovers.

If they are not done safely, as we spoke earlier, these can give rise to small wildfires and hence we have so many occurrences, and we must look at how to burn safely.