Intermarché supermarket in Lagos has donated five sets of protective equipment to the local fire station.
Each set includes boots, gloves, a hood, a protective suit, a helmet and a sweatshirt.
The donation was part of a larger national initiative carried out by Os Mosqueteiros Group, which runs the Intermarché, Bricomarché and Roady brands in Portugal.
A total of 1,000 sets of protective equipment were donated throughout the country – half of which were paid for directly by the group and the other half with the proceeds from children’s book ‘Bombeiro dos Pés à Cabeça’.
The book aims to teach children how important it is to protect forest areas and prevent wildfires.
“This is an initiative that fills us with pride,” said Franck Saintemarie, the owner of Intermarché Lagos.
“In a year in which the country was particularly ravaged by forest fires, the sales of this book helped alert children to the need to protect the forest and simultaneously raise enough money to improve the safety of Portuguese firefighters,” he added.
The group says in a statement that it has been helping the country’s firefighters for some time now, having donated 2,225 protective equipment sets to national fire brigades since 2014.
It adds that each outlet managed by the group is active in helping its local community, “supporting the fire stations of their regions all year long”.
