Forest fires. Some thoughts on preventing and combating myths

Abstract

In Portugal everyone has an opinion about forest fires based, most of the time, on the descriptions made by the media, which often, althought not always, are not very helpful in terms of giving a correct perception of the reality and the real dimension of the problem.

It is not our intention to present here an exhausting analysis of this problem, but to contribute to give information about forest fires, pointing out some of the causes that had contributed to the evolution of the last ones.

Among them, it is descrived what have conditioned a serious and efficient fire’s prevention, and it is also analysed what have limited the firemen’s action, which without the kind of impediment described, could have been far more efficient.