DECIR Charlie Mobilises 13,335 Operationals, 2,969 Vehicles and 78 Aerial Means for 15–30 June Window — IPMA Yellow Heat Alert Holds Across All 18 Mainland Districts and Air Force Black Hawks Debut on Rural-Fire Mission
DECIR Charlie steps to 13,335 operationals, 2,265 teams, 2,969 vehicles and 78 aerial means for 15-30 June, with two Air Force Black Hawks joining the rural-fire mission for the first time as IPMA holds yellow heat warning across all 18 mainland districts and Friday peaks toward 40°C.
The Dispositivo Especial de Combate a Incêndios Rurais (DECIR — Special Rural Wildfire Response Force) shifts into its Charlie phase on Sunday 15 June and holds the higher mobilisation level through 30 June, the Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil (ANEPC — National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority) confirmed this week.
The Charlie tape calls for 13,335 operationals organised into 2,265 teams, 2,969 vehicles and 78 aerial means. That is the second mobilisation step inside the calendar-year DECIR cycle, escalating from the Bravo phase that has carried the back end of May and early June. Charlie is the bridge to the peak Delta phase — 1 July to 30 September — which steps the headcount up to 15,149 and the aerial fleet to 81 across continental Portugal.
For 2026 the operational mix carries one debut. The Força Aérea Portuguesa (Portuguese Air Force) plugs two Black Hawk medium-lift helicopters into the rural-fire mission for the first time, a piece of the multi-year capability transfer triggered by the 2024 acquisition. The Black Hawks join three medium helicopters supplied by AFOCELCA — the private forest-protection consortium run by Portugal's pulp and paper sector — plus the existing Kamov heavy-lift fleet held under contract through the Força Aérea's Esquadra 552 (Squadron 552) at Beja.
The DECIR step-up lands inside a textbook fire-weather window. The Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA — Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute) has placed all 18 continental districts under yellow temperature warning from 09:00 Thursday through 18:00 Saturday, with Friday 12 June projected to peak between 35°C and 40°C across the Alentejo and northern interior. The Saharan-air mass anchoring the heat dome is forecast to sit over the Iberian Peninsula through 13 June, with the IPMA Fire Weather Index already pushing maximum readings across Bragança, Vila Real, Guarda, Castelo Branco, Portalegre, Évora and Beja concelhos (municipalities).
European reinforcements are part of the operational picture. Brussels confirmed on 2 June that the rescEU mechanism will pre-position two light firefighting aircraft on Portuguese soil to support the Delta peak, and bilateral agreements have queued 60 reinforcement bombeiros (firefighters) from Latvia and Malta for the late-July through August window — the slot where the 2022 and 2023 megafires both ignited.
The fiscal envelope is heavier this cycle. The Ministério da Administração Interna (MAI — Ministry of Internal Administration) carries the DECIR 2026 budget, with the Ministério das Finanças (Ministry of Finance) having ring-fenced wildfire emergency codes outside the OE2027 cativações cap signed off this morning. Insurance-sector estimates pencil 2026 direct-loss exposure at a multiple of the five-year average if a megafire crosses the 50,000-hectare threshold inside the Delta window.
The strategic call sits where it has sat for three cycles: first-strike attack within 90 minutes of ignition, multi-vector aerial cover across the Alentejo–Trás-os-Montes axis, and reserve-rotation protocols designed to keep crews fresh through the climbing September fire-peak. With the heat dome already overhead on Charlie's opening weekend, the first stress-test for the year's new posture arrives before the phase has fully spun up.
