Bombeiros
Portugal’s Volunteer Firefighters Both Honored and Challenged By Rosalie Rayburn and Nandini Singh
photo: bombeiros.pt
As climate change has extended the wildfire season in countries worldwide, the men and women who risk life and limb combating those terrifying infernos have gained heroic status. Nowhere is this more evident than in Portugal, where the bombeiros, as they are called, are honored for their bravery and dedication. “Heroes without capes” was how one news report described the hundreds of firefighters who battled a rash of fires in 2017 that killed more than 60 people and injured hundreds more near the central Portuguese town of Pedrógão Grande. Images of the soaring walls of flames are seared into the memory of those who lived through those desperate days. Joanna Child, a longtime resident of Mó Pequena, a village near Pedrógão Grande, still recalls how “everything around was burned, the stables, the barn, the vehicles outside, the tractor that was destroyed.” Prime Minister António Costa called the Pedrógão Grande fire the “greatest tragedy” and declared three days of mourning. After an earlier disaster, a medal was created to memorialize bombeiros who perished while rescuing people from a 1967 flood near Sintra. The wording on the medal sums up the reverence which the Portuguese express for these men and women. It reads, “Our Volunteer Firefighters, Noble in Peace, Heroes in Adversity.” Most of Portugal’s firefighting force comprises volunteers. At the time of the Pedrógão Grande disaster, about 90 22 Portugal Living Magazine
percent of Portugal’s 30,000 bombeiros were volunteers, according to the Associated Press. These are people who undergo hundreds of hours of specialized training and commit to leave their daytime jobs to put themselves in harm’s way for little or no pay. At the time of the Pedrógão Grande fire, the government paid volunteer firefighters responding to a summer fire outside their area of residence 1.87 euros per hour, according to the Associated Press. Motivations Vary What attracts people to commit themselves to a volunteer job that is demanding and often risky? Andrew Philip Thomas, 36, a fifteen-year veteran of Bombeiros Voluntários de Penela, started as a volunteer in his late teens and became a full-time professional about five years ago. “In my opinion,” Thomas said, “most people who join the Bombeiros are just ordinary people with a will to do good and help others.” Thomas said he grew up near the local fire station and had friends who joined the bombeiros, telling him it was a great experience. His decision to join was also influenced by a government incentive of assistance with university fees—available to those who complete the initial sixmonth firefighter training school and volunteer for a minimum of two years.
