| algarve |
|
 |
Blaze rages for three days
Updated: 14-Sep-2001
| 
|  |
It took all of the Algarve brigades and a contingent from four counties in the Alentejo — 130 men in all — plus 40 vehicles and three helicopters to control the fire. Concentrated in Silves county, the fire ravaged the area north of Enxerim up to the Arade reservoir. One fireman was seriously injured in an accident while en route to the blaze. Others were treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation. Com João da Luz said: “We thought we had the fire under control on the first day but we were wrong. It’s always hard to say when you really have it controlled.” After the blaze broke out for a second time, firemen were mobilised and remained at the scene. The Silves fire chief would not comment on the causes of the fire saying: “It’s not up to me to say what happened.”
As Mark Dobbin reports, eye-witnesses were treated to a sight at times resembling “a volcano.”
Mervyn Walker and his wife Marilyn, who lived in the Silves area from 1987 to 1997 before returning to England, had no sooner arrived at their holiday home near Enxerim than they saw the flames, stretching over a distance of two kilometres and towering high into the Saturday night sky. “It was spectacular. It looked like a volcano,” said Mr. Walker.
The couple were told by a local bar owner that a small fire had originally started around the area of the old lime kilns on the back road to Silves barragem. “We were also told that local people had attacked the fire with a water pump,” Mr Walker continued. “Before the wind lifted, the flames carried them on. I remember the big Monchique fire of 1993 and by the time we arrived in the Enxerim area at 9.15 at night this latest fire was every bit as big as that one.”
Jim Rose who lives on the outskirts of Silves close to Enxerim explained that the wind was an added problem for the bombeiros throughout the weekend. “The wind kept changing direction,” explained Mr Rose, “which meant the fire kept moving at a rapid pace. On Sunday afternoon the wind was pushing the flames towards the Silves to Messines road. The bombeiros did a magnificent job.”
Mr Rose added that while he was visiting a friend in Armação de Pêra on Monday he noticed "ashes from the fire in the swimming pool."
And Henry Dumas who lives in Franqueira just over three kilometres from Enxerim told me: "The flames were in a ferocious line one-and-a-half miles long. I would go inside my house for a few seconds and by the time I came outside again they had travelled another 20 yards. The whole of the ridge that I can see from my house is now completely burnt out."
As desperate as it might seem, the Algarve is not the most devastated region of the country. Fires raged up and down Portugal and in three days – September 7, 8 and 9 – all records were broken. Eighteen hundred fires were detected bringing the total in the last week to 3,503. In the Beira Interior region, around Serra da Estrela mountains, a total of 12,595 hectares have been destroyed this year. Fires still rage and the total devastation is bound to grow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
top
the algarve web designers