October + Wildfires: two words I thought I would never have to put together.

Module 79L

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You know, October, the first month of Autumn, when the weather is supposed to become colder and it starts to rain? Well, this ain't it! :confused::(

 
Monday's update:

484 new fires started between the 0.00h of Saturday and midnight on Sunday. The fire you see on the right of Coimbra in the picture above is the most worrying at the moment, with 7 active fronts.
 
Well, things couldn't get any worse. :cry::cry:
This is from this last Sunday, October 15. I have no words to describe this, I'll let the pictures speak for me.

A17 motorway, near Vagos - Aveiro district (central Portugal, near the coast):

Tomar (central Portugal, just 20kms north of where I live):

Arganil - Coimbra district (central Portugal):
Arganil 1.jpg Arganil 2.jpg

Braga - Braga district (North West Portugal):
Braga 1.jpg Braga 2.jpg

Lousã - Coimbra district (central Portugal):
Lousã.jpg

Vieira de Leiria - Leiria district (West central Portugal, near the coast):
Marinha Grande 1.png Marinha Grande 2.jpg Marinha Grande 3.jpg

Oliveira do Hospital - Coimbra district (central Portugal):
Oliv do Hospital 1.jpg Oliv do Hospital 2.jpg
 
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Oliveira do Hospital (cont.):
Oliv do Hospital 3.jpgOliv do Hospital 4.jpg Oliv do Hospital 5.jpg

Sertã - Castelo Branco district (East central Portugal):
Sertã 1.jpg Sertã 2.jpg Sertã 3.jpg

Tondela - Viseu district (north central Portugal):
Tondela.jpg

Vila Nova de Poiares - Coimbra district (central Portugal):
VN Poiares 1.jpg VN Poiares 2.jpg

Vouzela - Viseu district (North central Portugal):
Vouzela 1.jpg
 
Vouzela (cont.):
Vouzela 2.jpg

Ericeira - Lisbon district (South West Portugal):
Ericeira.JPG

Mafra - Lisbon district (South West Portugal):
Mafra.jpg

The picture that went viral, taken from Vieira de Leiria's fire station:
Vieira de Leiria.jpg

A woman running for her and her pet's life:
random.jpg


Sunday's numbers:
- 532 ignitions
- More than 80 fires at the same time
- More than 6000 firefighters in action
- All the aerial means available
- 32 deaths
- More than 50 injured, 15 in critical condition
- Dozens of houses destroyed
- Several enterprises and factories partially damaged
 
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This is a map of all the forest fires that are currently burning across Europe.

In California USA 140,000 acres have burned and 5,700 buildings have been destroyed so far.

California death toll is currently 40.

Our President was playing golf this weekend and has not mentioned the fires.

The photos from Portugal and the US look almost exactly the same.

Unbelievable!

http://fires.globalforestwatch.org/home/


eurofires.jpg
 
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Very sad to see things like this happening.
Especially when there's nothing much they can do about it. Never ever the conditions were this bad, especially the strong hot and dry South wind. So bad that up north, in Monção, the fire crossed the large river Minho and set south Galicia on fire too. :(
 
"Much of the area in flames is dominated by eucalyptus, an Australian species introduced to Europe in the 18th Century but which really boomed in Portugal with the rise of paper industries in the mid-20th Century."

I've seen eucalyptus burning, now I understand why it is so bad - eucalyptus is designed to burn!

"In seasonally dry climates oaks are often fire-resistant, particularly in open grasslands, as a grass fire is insufficient to ignite the scattered trees. In contrast a eucalyptus forest tends to promote fire because of the volatile and highly combustible oils produced by the leaves, as well as the production of large amounts of litter which is high in phenolics, preventing its breakdown by fungi and thus accumulates as large amounts of dry, combustible fuel. Consequently, dense eucalypt plantings may be subject to catastrophic firestorms."

"Lack of management of the forest is a key part of Portugal's problem. As rural populations have dwindled, many of these privately owned plots have been neglected, with brush and detritus accumulating - which become fuel for the flames when a fire breaks out."

"The plantations are allowed to plant up to the edge of the road, which is a crime, because if a tree falls over over it blocks the road and that's the end for everyone," Caleb Cluff, an Australian journalist who witnessed the fire, told the BBC's 5 live radio station."

Seems like some lessons need to be learned, safety before profits.
 
"Much of the area in flames is dominated by eucalyptus, an Australian species introduced to Europe in the 18th Century but which really boomed in Portugal with the rise of paper industries in the mid-20th Century."

I've seen eucalyptus burning, now I understand why it is so bad - eucalyptus is designed to burn!

"In seasonally dry climates oaks are often fire-resistant, particularly in open grasslands, as a grass fire is insufficient to ignite the scattered trees. In contrast a eucalyptus forest tends to promote fire because of the volatile and highly combustible oils produced by the leaves, as well as the production of large amounts of litter which is high in phenolics, preventing its breakdown by fungi and thus accumulates as large amounts of dry, combustible fuel. Consequently, dense eucalypt plantings may be subject to catastrophic firestorms."

"Lack of management of the forest is a key part of Portugal's problem. As rural populations have dwindled, many of these privately owned plots have been neglected, with brush and detritus accumulating - which become fuel for the flames when a fire breaks out."

"The plantations are allowed to plant up to the edge of the road, which is a crime, because if a tree falls over over it blocks the road and that's the end for everyone," Caleb Cluff, an Australian journalist who witnessed the fire, told the BBC's 5 live radio station."

Seems like some lessons need to be learned, safety before profits.
Do you know what burned the most in the areas of yesterday's fires? PINE TREES! The fire in the Leiria district consumed 80% of the biggest, best kept and tended pine forest in Portugal, so don't give me the eucalyptus BS!
It was all about the conjuction of most adverse conditions ever, even more than in the Pedrógão fire in June: high temperatures, strong, hot and dry winds (they reached 70km/h in some places), zero humidity in the air and 6 months without rain. Some witnesses said the pine trees burned like they were soaked in gasoline. Never in our fires' history there were so many houses destroyed and most of them weren't even close to the forests!
 
Some witnesses said the pine trees burned like they were soaked in gasoline.
It is turpentine that you get from pine trees, also very flammable and potentially explosive.
 
And what about the cork trees, i need a good seal on my wine bottles, i think a plastic screw cap would be strange.

I think / seem to recall Portugal supply much of the cork for the bottles of the world.
 
And what about the cork trees, i need a good seal on my wine bottles, i think a plastic screw cap would be strange.

I think / seem to recall Portugal supply much of the cork for the bottles of the world.

Cork bark actually has natural fire retardant properties which make it suitable for acoustic and thermal insulation in walls, floors, ceilings. I remember hanging out in an artist's loft in the former meat packing district in NYC which was lined with 4 inches of cork on the walls and ceilings from back in the day before refrigeration. Aside from cork being a good insulator and sound proofer it was used in construction because it doesn't burn so easily. I remember how even in the middle of NYC in an area full of truck traffic that loft was perfectly soundproof and quiet.
 
And what about the cork trees, i need a good seal on my wine bottles, i think a plastic screw cap would be strange.

I think / seem to recall Portugal supply much of the cork for the bottles of the world.
I think the cork is the trees natural fire protection, so you don't want to harvest too much of it!

http://mediterranean.panda.org/?20933/Fighting-forest-fires-with-cork-in-Portugal
The Cansino project involves restoring the burnt areas and re-designing forest landscapes in order to make them more resistant to fires. Cork oak trees will play a key role as they are naturally resistant to fires. Patches of natural cork oak trees will be planted in key eucalyptus plantations as barriers against fires.
 
O yeah i totally forgot that about those trees, same with some N American trees, they actually need a windfire passing by once in a while.
If my flaky memory serve me right i think the "widowmaker" pine are one of them ( dont know its real name but it have the largest cones in the world and you should wear a hard hat around them )
 
And what about the cork trees, i need a good seal on my wine bottles, i think a plastic screw cap would be strange.

I think / seem to recall Portugal supply much of the cork for the bottles of the world.
Were still the world's biggest cork producer. The cork trees here in Portugal are planted in areas where there aren't any forest fires, i.e mostly in the Alentejo and south Ribatejo. This last Sunday there wasn't a single fire south of the Tagus river, despite being the region where the drought is more severe.
 
Despite the conjuction of several adverse conditions that allowed this catastrophe to happen, there was a factor involved that many people are overlooking: it's olive picking time and that means cutting off the branches afterwards and burn them. In previous years it had already rained by now or the risk of fire was low and people did the harvest earlier and burned the branches safely. This year the olives were ready to pick for some time now but since the risk of fire had been very high throughout the whole month of September and no burnings were allowed in any circumstance, people have been putting it off. Last Thursday the weather institute announced it would start raining on Monday, so all of a sudden everybody started picking the olives and burning the branches, even though it was completely prohibited.
Many, if not all of Sunday's fires, started in rural areas where people still do things like they did all their lives, completely ignoring the warnings and the conditions. Because it was going to rain. :confused: I bet many of the fires started when small burnings got out of control due to the wind.

All the fires in Coimbra and Viseu districts originated in the Lousã fire. It spread to Vila Nova de Poiares, Arganil, Oliveira do Hospital and Penacova (Coimbra) and then to Mortágua, Santa Comba Dão, Nelas, Tondela and Vouzela, almost 90kms northeast in a straight line.
Monday morning I called a cousin that lives in Vila Nova de Poiares to see how she was and she said she had never seen anything like that. The fire passed some 50m away from her house but the heat was so intense that she had to get back inside. The plastic window shades on the fire's side got all warped from the heat. :confused:
 
Latest numbers:

- 42 deaths
- More than 70 injured, 14 still in serious condition.
- More than 500 000ha of forest and agricultural lands burned, 250 000 just in the first 15 days of October (the last "record" was from 2003, with more than 400 000ha for the whole year). 80% of the Pinhal de Leiria (a 700 year old pine forest that is the only state-run forest in the country) was destroyed.
- Undetermined number of houses burned or severely damaged, the large majority were first homes (a provisional number points to more than 500).
- Undetermined number of businesses, factories and enterprises destroyed or severely damage. Viseu district, the capital of the poultry industry, was severely affected and many people are in danger of losing their jobs. This industry was the biggest employer and the major source of revenue of the district. In Mortágua county, a biomass powerplant burned down.
:(
 
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