A fire drill to test the regional fire fighting teams in the event of a large forest fire took place in the Silves council on October 19.
The location for the Algarve Fire 2011 exercise was the Herdade do Bom Homem and involved an 80-man force including fire fighters from across the Algarve, teams from the GNR’s GIPS and SEPNA departments, the Portuguese Red Cross and the Civil Protection.
Several fire fighting trucks and a helicopter were used to combat the flames, which ‘started’ at 10.50am after the Picota vigilance tower alerted the fire fighting teams and was put out at around 1pm.
The drill, monitored by a group of civil protection experts from Norway, Spain and France, among other countries, was deemed a success.
