AFOCELCA – Complementary Grouping of Companies for Fire Protection today inaugurated its new Operational Coordination Centre, located at the CELBI facilities in Leirosa, Municipality of Figueira da Foz.
Designed to meet the increasingly demanding challenges posed by rural wildfires, the new centre represents a significant enhancement of the organisation’s operational capacity, strengthening its role in protecting communities and forest assets in coordination with Portugal’s national forest fire defence system.
The Operational Coordination Centre (CCOA) incorporates a modern Operations Room responsible for monitoring and analysing incidents, assessing risks to the assets under AFOCELCA’s protection, dispatching resources, and overseeing firefighting operations across different operational theatres. The new facility also includes a Decision Room specifically equipped for managing large-scale and complex incidents or events, ensuring that regular operational activities can continue uninterrupted at the same time.
In addition to its coordination and management areas, the new centre features a multi-purpose room equipped for meetings, training activities, and operational preparedness exercises. This capability plays a particularly important role in the organisation’s capacity-building strategy, as AFOCELCA trains more than 400 operational personnel each year to integrate its Protection Force, as a training provider certified by DGERT.
The Operational Coordination Centre will also serve as the hub for all logistical planning required to sustain a firefighting force that, during periods of peak activity, mobilises approximately 500 personnel.
With a projected budget of €5.164 million for 2026 and more than 500 operational personnel within its structure, AFOCELCA currently employs advanced decision-support systems, including geographic information platforms, wildfire spread simulators, satellite monitoring systems and risk analysis tools, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of both prevention and operational response.
25 Years in Service of Forest Protection
AFOCELCA is a private forest protection organisation owned by the forestry companies of the ALTRI Group and The Navigator Company. It specialises in first response and wildfire suppression and has been integrated into Portugal’s National Forest Fire Defence System since 2006, operating in close coordination with the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) and other entities responsible for the integrated management of rural wildfires.
Over its 25 years of activity, the organisation has processed 108,882 alerts and intervened in 14,462 incidents on the ground, building unparalleled operational experience within the Portuguese context.
AFOCELCA’s permanent protection force safeguards not only the territory belonging to its member companies but also the surrounding forest landscape. Approximately 90% of its interventions take place outside the areas directly owned or managed by the grouping.
In 2025, the organisation’s operational force included more than 60 ground and aerial firefighting resources and over 500 personnel. During the same period, it delivered 25 training programmes involving more than 400 trainees.
The inauguration of the new Operational Coordination Centre marks another step forward in the modernisation of wildfire prevention, coordination and suppression capabilities, contributing to landscape resilience and reinforcing AFOCELCA’s commitment to the protection of forests, communities and territories.
AFOCELCA – Complementary Grouping of Companies for Fire Protection (ACE) is a private organisation specialising in forest protection, with activities focused on monitoring, detection, first intervention and support to rural and forest firefighting operations. It works in permanent coordination with the entities of Portugal’s National Civil Protection System and Integrated Rural Wildfire Management System, contributing to a rapid, coordinated and effective response to incidents.