Fire At First Hand
As we came out of a supermarket near Oliveira de Hospital yesterday, we saw a thick plume of smoke in the air...
The supermarket is right on the N17, the main road from our area up to the Serra de Estrala mountain range. It runs high along a ridge for much of its length, and the forest fire was deep down in the valley below us. Driving a little further along the road, we found an excellent vantage point for the fire and were able to watch its frighteningly fast development.
You can just make out a volunteer fire engine (all fire fighting appears to be volunteer in Portugal) on the left. There was another group of fire-fighters even closer to the flames, but not visible in this picture. Soon after we arrived, they pulled back as the flames leapt towards them.
As we watched a helicopter turned up. It landed nearby -- perhaps to pick up a water bucket -- then began making circuits to a nearby water source, taking only a couple of minutes to get back each time with another load. We were quite impressed at the efficiency of the operation, and at how effective the helicopter appeared to be.
Shortly later, two small planes joined the fire-fighting effort. These had inboard tanks, and presumably had to return to base for refills. Even so, as we watched (for perhaps an hour or so) they made a number of round trips. We imagine they were flying into and out of Coja airfield, judging by the direction they came in from.
Ultimately, two helicopters, two small planes, and two larger float-planes (no photo, I'm afraid) joined the effort. In an hour or so, the fire appeared to be mostly under control, though still burning fiercely in a couple of places.
It's very difficult to judge just how big this fire was. My guess is that it burned 2-3km of trees from west to east (the wind direction), while it might have spread up both sides of the huge Alva valley (something difficult to verify from where we were). My map shows a large number of houses in the area; whether any were lost or not I have no idea. However, it seems the fire didn't make the major newspapers, so I have to assume it was a small one. For us, standing a few hundred metres above and to the north, it was quite frightening. At times the flames were invisible; hidden behind thick, billowing smoke. Then sometimes they came closer, and we could see they were towering over the trees -- probably 2-3 times treetop height. In the strong wind, they whipped around unpredictably, and we worried for the fire-fighters whom we could see on the very edge of the conflagration.
After seeing this, I must remind our friends who have large areas of woodland to get on with their fire-protection work -- most importantly clearing flammable undergrowth....