Bombeiros As climate change has extended the wildfire season in Portugal, the men and women who risk life and limb combating those terrifying infernos have gained heroic status.

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

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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.

Andrew Thomas, 36, a professional firefighter with the Bombeiros Voluntários de Penela, loads equipment into a vehicle.

photo: Rosalie Rayburn

Sandra Beatriz Perdigão Marques, a Quadro de Comando (command advisor) with Bombeiros de Caxárias, said becoming a bombeiro was a childhood dream. She joined in 1999. Now aged 39, she has a 15-year-old son who is in a bombeiro cadet group, planning to follow in her footsteps. Marques said the desire to help others in need was a strong factor motivating her career choice and that feeling has grown over the years. “The ability to place yourself in someone else’s shoes during the most fragile moments of life, health, death, confrontation with loss, it all gets stronger when working with the bombeiros,” Marques said.

History and Organization

Portugal is not unique in having a large percentage of volunteers in its fire brigades. In the USA, about 70 percent of firefighters are volunteers, according to the National Fire Protection Association; in Germany, that number is about 97 percent. Portugal’s first firefighting unit was the Bombeiros Voluntários de Lisboa, founded in 1868. Roughly translated, bombeiros means “people who pump.” Nowadays, there are about 400 fire departments in Portugal. A few firefighters—Marques estimates about 250—are privately employed by the paper and pulp industry which plays an important role in Portugal’s economy. But most fire departments are established and run on a local level by individual municipalities under regulations developed by the Autoridade Nacional de Emergencia e Protecão Civil (ANEPC) or National Authority of Emergency and Civil Protection. These units have a hierarchical structure similar to military regiments. They are partly funded by the municipalities but are still heavily dependent on donations to purchase essential equipment and protective gear. “Fire suits cost more than 2,000 euros apiece and the cost of a new truck is more than 250,000 euros, way beyond their (municipalities) budgets,” Marques said. Each region has its “Humanitarian Association” that helps raise money to support the local bombeiros unit. Individuals and groups throughout Portugal hold fundraising events such as golf tournaments and auctions to support their local bombeiros. Businesses also help fundraise. For example, in 2017 Os Mosqueteiros Group, which runs the Intermarché, Bricomarché, and Roady brands in Portugal, donated 1,000 sets of protective equipment to bombeiros units throughout the country.

Sandra Marques, command adjunct of Bombeiros Voluntarios Caxárias, stands in front of a fire truck.

photo: Nandini Singh

Extensive Training

Bombeiros must undergo training and practical experience covering areas such as first aid, combating forest fires and urban fires, responding to car crashes, and learning drill commands. Once qualified, volunteers are then required to complete a minimum of 40 hours of training annually to keep up-to-date on techniques, said Marques. Bombeiros respond to a variety of situations: delivering water to remote locations, rescuing people or animals, attending to car crashes, house and forest fires, and medical emergencies. Calls to Portugal’s 112 emergency number go to a police dispatcher, who directs them according to the type of situation. Medical emergency calls go to the Centro de Orientação de Doentes Urgentes (CODU), which coordinates with the Instituto Nacional de Emergencias (INEM). Large cities have their own INEM units. Outside the major cities, fire departments typically provide emergency medical services, often using INEM vehicles or equipment.

Statues and memorials honoring Portugal’s volunteer firefighters abound throughout the country.

photo: All About Portugal

In a small town like Penela, Thomas said he enjoys interacting with the community; but the work can can be stressful, especially when there is a fatality. Like a military unit, bombeiros have a strong and supportive sense of camaraderie. For many of his colleagues, the bombeiros become like a second family. “We are always integrated to a team that has our backs and helps get things done,” Thomas said. Marques said she has dealt with some “moments of high stress,” such as an August 2019 fire in Fátima. “I was leading a team of firefighters, and we found ourselves surrounded by the flames. It was a moment that decisions had to be made very fast and almost instinctively. Thanks to the team’s synergy and persistence, we all made it through.” Bombeiros develop close ties with the community they serve. Kathy Morgan-McDowall, who lives near Ferreira do Zêzere, said one of the local bombeiros took her to a Coimbra hospital daily for nearly a month to get radiotherapy treatment. Along the way, the two became fast friends. “They were unfailingly kind and sympathetic,” MorganMcDowall said. While people in local communities show their appreciation, Thomas is skeptical about the “hero” label. “I think that, in general, we are seen as ordinary people who do what we can, help whenever possible, without really expecting anything in return,” he said.

Challenges Remain

According to the Insurance Information Institute, Portugal had 58,950 wildfires in 2020, compared to 50,477 in 2019. The steep hills and deep valleys of central Portugal— around Coimbra, Viseu, and Castelo Branco—have been areas most prone to fires. The terrain is covered in eucalyptus forests, planted widely to meet demand from Portugal’s paper and pulp industry. Fantina Tedim, assistant professor of geography at the University of Porto, who studied the Pedrógão Grande fire, attributed the seriousness of the blaze to rural depopulation, which left large amounts of land abandoned and allowed vegetation to accumulate … along with climate change, which has resulted in hotter, dryer summers.

Following the Pedrógão Grande incident, Marques said programs have been implemented to create facilities for safe refuge and to educate people so they can protect their communities against fire. Laws also require property owners to clear vegetation around homes and buildings to prevent the spread of fires. Nevertheless, the incidence of wildfires keeps the bombeiros’ resources stretched … and the strain is taking a toll. In November 2021, the National Association of Firefighters and Professionals and the National Union of Firefighters (ANBP/SNBP) threatened to strike, seeking better pay and working conditions. The unions called off their strike when national budget negotiations collapsed, and an election was called for January 2022. Whatever the outcome, Portugal’s bombeiros will always wear a badge of courage—not just for their training and perseverance when combatting ever-increasing fires throughout the country. But also for those “little” things— driving the sick to hospitals in ambulances, rescuing cats from trees and dogs stuck wherever, delivering water to remote locations, and attending to medical emergencies. Unlike Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, and many cartoon superheroes, the bombeiros are ordinary people living extraordinary lives. And, for that, we honor them.

Rosalie Rayburn is from Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA), and currently lives in Portugal.

Nandini Singh is a writer and illustrator who considers herself a creator.

A group of the Bombeiros Voluntarios Caxárias participate in a training exercise using a medical mannequin.

photo: Nandini Singh