Next weekend, the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Department Services of the Azores and Madeira will formulate and present, in Funchal, new civil protection legislative proposals regarding fires in buildings.

Some of the proposals that will be formulated at this meeting will be included in regional legislation applicable to both autonomous regions in accordance with the Legal Decree Nº 220/2008, adopted on the 12th November and already put into effect in Continental Portugal.

Given the specificities of insular regions, the two services of Civil Protection endeavour to establish common operational criteria with regard to the protection of buildings against the threat of fires.

The regional Civil Protection Services will seek to define which institutions have jurisdiction over these matters and who should monitor the safety conditions of buildings. They will also propose the signing of a protocol of cooperation with the National Civil Protection Authority to address concerns in this domain.

The Legal Decree Nº 220/2008, which was put into effect in the continental Portugal on the 1st January of the current year, enjoins the application of new civil protection rules against fires in such buildings as museums, warehouses and day-centres. Henceforth, these buildings will be classified in accordance with their risk and vulnerability assessment.

This Legal Decree also determines that the monitoring and classification of buildings is the responsibility of a multi-disciplinary team of civil engineers, architects, builders and members of the Civil Protection Services.

With regard to the Azores, the conclusions of this meeting will be presented to the Regional Secretariat for Science, Technology and Infrastructure, which is responsible for the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Department Services of the Azores.