Regional Government strengthens pre-hospital emergency medical services with three new crews and ensures all fire stations across the Azores operate 24/7 - Communication

Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e Ação Climática

The Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Action, Alonso Miguel, announced today during a visit to the Azores Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service (SRPCBA) that the Regional Government will, once again, increase investment in the Region’s Pre-Hospital Medical Emergency System, allocating three new crews as early as 2027 to the fire brigades of Calheta, Santa Cruz das Flores and Angra do Heroísmo.

According to Alonso Miguel, "this reinforcement is a direct investment in the system's response capacity, ensuring that more resources are available, greater proximity to local communities and better response conditions to emergencies promptly."

The Secretary highlighted that pre-hospital medical emergency services represent around 93% of all operational activity within the Regional Civil Protection System, making it the primary daily area of intervention for Azorean fire brigades.

"Over the last five years, the system has responded to more than 154,000 pre-hospital medical emergency incidents across the Region, which corresponds to an average of around 31,000 incidents per year. These figures, coupled with the upward trend in the number of incidents of this kind, show the size and demands of this system, and, therefore, confirm the need to continue strengthening resources and response capacity," stated Alonso Miguel.

It is against this backdrop of increasing operational demands that the deployment of the three new crews is taking place, intending to meet the specific needs identified in each of the areas covered.

The Regional Secretary emphasised that “the deployment of the new crews in the municipalities of Calheta and Santa Cruz das Flores will ensure the continuous operation of the detached sections in Topo and Lajes das Flores, which currently lack pre-hospital emergency medical cover during the night”.

“With this measure, the detached sections in Topo and Lajes das Flores will now provide assistance to their respective communities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, removing a constraint that had previously limited the response capacity at night,” stated the Regional Secretary.

Alonso Miguel explained that “in the case of the unit from Topo, this reinforcement responds to the concerns expressed by the local population, particularly in a public petition recently submitted, regarding the closure of the home-visit fire prevention service previously provided by the Calheta Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters. This ensures that the communities of Topo and Santo Antão have access to round-the-clock local assistance.”

“With regard to Lajes das Flores, this measure fulfils a long-standing aspiration of the local population and an ambition of the local association, ensuring, for the first time, a pre-hospital emergency medical response during the night as well,” he emphasised.

The government official recalled that, “when the current Regional Government took office, three of the five detached sections in the Azores were not operational permanently, providing services only during daylight hours.” In this regard, he added that “following the reinforcement carried out in 2025, at the Lomba da Maia detached section in São Miguel, the Regional Government is now moving forward with the reinforcement of the Topo and Lajes das Flores sections.”

“For the first time in the Azores, the entire regional network of fire detached sections will operate continuously, 24 hours a day and throughout the year. This is a very significant development for territorial cohesion and equal access to emergency services, unprecedented in the region,” he emphasised.

In the case of Angra do Heroísmo, Alonso Miguel emphasised that “the allocation of a new crew is due to the high level of operational activity in that municipality, which has the second-highest workload in the Azores in terms of pre-hospital medical emergencies and a significant number of simultaneous incidents.”

“The high number of incidents, the size of the coverage area and the number of residents served make it necessary to increase the available response capacity, particularly during the night,” emphasised Alonso Miguel.

According to the Regional Secretary, “with the deployment of this new crew, the Angra do Heroísmo Fire Brigade will now have three ambulances available for operational use at night as well – two at the Angra do Heroísmo station and one at the Altares detached section.”

“We are, therefore, adapting the arrangements to the operational realities of each territory, ensuring round-the-clock coverage where it did not previously exist and strengthening response capacity where demand and the frequency of incidents are higher,” he said.

Alonso Miguel revealed that “the three new crews represent an additional investment of around €360,000 per year. This increase means that the Regional Government’s annual investment in the Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical System will reach approximately €9 million in 2027."

The Regional Secretary pointed out that "investment in this system stood at just €4.9 million in 2020, which means that, in just a few years, the Region’s financial commitment has increased by around 85%.”

“We have practically doubled investment in pre-hospital emergency medical care, and this increase reflects a clear political choice from the Regional Government: strengthening operational capacity, improving territorial coverage and ensuring that the public has access to an emergency medical response that is increasingly local, round-the-clock and effective,” he concluded.