Today is national Civil Protection Day, and in commemoration a press release explains that thanks to EU funds for Portugal’s PRR – recovery and resilience plan – firefighters will be receiving 81 new forestry vehicles designed to ‘reinforce operational response capacity in the combat of forest fires’. The sum of €12.6 million has been set aside for the acquisition of these vehicles which will finally bring the country’s fire fighting fleet into the 21st century (ensuring a cover unseen since 1980…) The 81 vehicles will be made up of 59 VFCIs (forestry vehicles for fire combat) and 22 VTTFs (tactical forestry tanks). A delivery schedule has not yet been published.
