Portugal’s Brisa Autoestradas launches road fire safety campaign

Brisa Autoestradas, the Portuguese highway concessionaire, announced a road‑fire awareness campaign advising motorists on how to react safely when wildfires threaten motorways. The guidance includes reducing speed, increasing following distance, keeping headlights on, using hazard lights, keeping windows closed with the air‑conditioning set to recirculation, and parking off the carriageway next to solid structures if necessary. Drivers are urged to stay inside the vehicle, keep the engine running, use the SOS Autoestradas app to transmit their exact location to the operator’s control centre, and call 112 for assistance.

In the Sertã municipality, the ReHubs resilience sessions organised by the Inter‑Municipal Community of Beira Baixa, VOST Portugal and local authorities highlighted fire‑prevention measures. Organisers noted that 98 % of Portuguese wildfires have human origins and recommended vegetation management, clearing a 50‑metre zone around homes and a 100‑metre zone around settlements, and reporting unmaintained land to the Nature and Environment Protection Service (SEPNA) of the National Republican Guard (GNR). Native species such as cork oak and azinheira were promoted as natural fire barriers, while invasive acacias were identified as high‑risk.