Once again, the wildfires are springing up all over the country.
A large fire is spreading across the land just 20km from our location.
Two years ago, we experienced a fire that lasted two days and spread across the hillside to within ½km of our house.
Last year, there were some very large fires in other parts of the country, but nothing very near our area.
Yesterday evening, at around 4:30, a fire began somewhere in the area between Águas and Aldeia de João Pires. The emergency services arrived quickly and began to deal with it. After just two hours, there were around 350 firefighters and 6 aircraft tackling the blaze.
By 9:30pm, and with the light fading, the aircraft had to stop operating, and the fire was now racing across the countryside.
This morning, it seemed as though the fire was becoming under control, with much less smoke visible. The firefighting effort continued with more than 400 bombeiros on the ground and up to 5 aircraft.
However, by 4:30, there seems to be a new main part to the blaze, and things are picking up again.
With all the other fires around the country, it seems that the resources are spread quite thinly, and the ability to tackle these outbreaks is severely diminished.
We do need help from nearby countries with the equipment and operatives to join the fight.