In Portugal, forest sapadores are few and generally poorly paid, but they carry out their fire prevention and land clearing duties with dedication, while waiting for integration into the professional career. The Lusitanian News Agency (Lusa) followed the work of the two forest sapador teams in the municipality of Figueira da Foz, one of the 12 municipalities nationwide that has two teams managed by municipal councils.
Sandro Nogueira, 42 years old and leader of one of the teams, has worked in the forestry sector for 26 years, since the age of 16. His team, which includes Fernando Sousa and José Beato, operates with heavy machinery owned by the Municipal Civil Protection Service, complementing the equipment provided by ICNF. The work combines mechanized intervention with manual labor, with the machine removing most of the woody material and the ground sapadores doing finer clearing around the trees.
The teams are responsible for fuel management on primary and secondary firebreaks, clearing and widening paths, combating Asian hornet (vespa velutina) nests (about 600 per year) and water hyacinths. Each team can manage about 100 hectares annually, in a municipality where forest covers more than 21,300 hectares, 56% of the territory. The state funding of about 65 thousand euros per team covers six months of intervention, but each one costs about 150 thousand euros.
The forest sapadores aspire to be integrated into the professional career as a form of appreciation. Sandro Nogueira highlighted that integration "would value our work, it would even give us another boost." João Figueiredo, a sapador for eight years, works "for the love of it," but hopes "eventually, to have the career that has already been promised." João Matias, second commander of the Firefighters Sapadores, recalled that the work is "thankless" because the brush grows back, being continuous, difficult and time-consuming.
