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The teams from the Mato Grosso do Sul Military Fire Department, which will carry out environmental education and forest fire prevention activities in traditional communities, rural properties and state parks, located in the Pantanal, begin the action this Tuesday (2).

The six garrisons, made up of 24 firefighters with the support of a team made up of another 15 professionals responsible for the management, logistics and monitoring of data from the SCI (Incident Command System) established in Campo Grande and Corumbá, left the operational base, in Capital, for the different locations that will be served in this stage of the work.

The guidance and education activity is carried out annually, but in 2024 the work was brought forward. The climate alert, with the possibility of intense forest fires throughout the State and especially in the Pantanal – with below-average rainfall and high temperatures –, advanced the action by at least a month.

“The Fire Department works on firefighting and environmental protection all year round, not just in the activity itself, but we emphasize prevention. We start in May or June, but this year we bring it forward to April. And we doubled the teams that go into the field to carry out activities with local communities, riverside communities and on rural properties. As in the last five years, this year we must face severe weather conditions, a situation that has already been predicted and warned by Cemtec (Weather and Climate Monitoring Center)”, said Lieutenant Colonel Tatiane Inoue, director of Environmental Protection at the Military Fire Department, responsible for monitoring and combating forest fires in the State.

In parallel to the preventive work – with guidance and environmental education –, advanced bases will also be installed to combat forest fires in the Pantanal region, to facilitate the movement of teams and the response to control the flames, especially in areas that are difficult to access.

“The Pantanal is the biome that we have the most difficulty accessing. So we are going to establish the advanced bases for the first time, it is new this year. We need to reduce the response time, which in some situations takes 7 hours of travel by vessel, more than a day traveling on roads, and this ends up making it difficult to fight the fire. When we talk about transiting the Pantanal, these are teams that go with equipment, fuel and supplies, that need to spend days in that terrain for combat, and it is not with easy and simple access”, explained the lieutenant colonel.

The first two advanced bases will be installed on the banks of the Paraguay and São Lourenço rivers, on the border with Mato Grosso. “At times, during the dry period, fires originating in the neighboring state end up entering that region. We want to avoid this progression into our State”, stated Inoue.

In addition to the two confirmed bases, the Fire Department is prepared to install eleven others, totaling 13 locations where teams will be prepared to combat forest fires.

All preventive action that begins today (2) focuses on work that involves integrated fire management. “We restructured our techniques and tactics to prevent large fires in Mato Grosso do Sul and this prevention activity is one of the main actions we develop. We provide environmental education in these locations, providing guidance on integrated fire management tools, conservation of firebreaks, cleaning of bridge heads, use of the minimum necessary materials and equipment that we use to fight fires and that rural properties may have. We also provide training with the techniques we use. Especially in more distant regions, because when a fire breaks out in these communities, it is the local population who will carry out the first combat action until our team arrives”, said the director of Environmental Protection.

Technology and planning

With planned and organized action, the CBMMS (Mato Grosso do Sul Fire Department) carries out important work in controlling and combating forest fires throughout the State. The support of various technologies contribute to the prompt response and effective extinction of outbreaks – especially in the Pantanal.

The good practices developed in Mato Grosso do Sul, for monitoring biomes and effective actions to combat forest fires, contribute decisively to environmental preservation.

With drones, specific personal protective equipment to ensure safety (flame-resistant clothing and boots), satellite monitoring using platforms from NASA – a United States government agency –, Federal Police, Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) and Imasul (Environmental Institute of Mato Grosso do Sul), in addition to navigation technology, data and artificial intelligence, the actions of firefighters are increasingly specific and qualified to avoid and mitigate the damage caused by forest fires.

Source: MS Government Communication