A few days ago we were reminded of how nature and negligence are poor companions.
A small fire was accidentally started by someone working with a power tool in an area around 1.5km from our home.
The fire became out of control almost immediately, at approximately 11:15.
At around 11:35 I happened to look out of the window and saw the smoke plume.
It was a bit of a shock. Then I could hear the helicopters which were loading up from small lakes nearby and bombing the fire. At this point there were, I believe, four of them working to douse the fire.
More and more bombeiros (firefighters) were racing to the scene, some even came up our road to get to the fire - but there was no access for large vehicles on that track.
As the fire appeared to be a distance away, and the emergency services were obviously dealing with it, I was not overly concerned but continued to watch the progress.
After around an hour it was apparent that the fire was becoming serious and spreading quickly. I could now see the flames moving up the hillside.
We have a friend who lives in the forest area much nearer to the fire so I was quite concerned, he did not answer his 'phone so I assumed he was busy, Other friends, located further down the valley with a grandstand view of the event, were keeping me up to date with the situation.
Now there were five helicopters, four small pontoon type, and two large airplanes in constant relay, still struggling to dominate the fire.
But still, the fire made progress along the mountain ridge. Obviously, the firefighters were concentrating their efforts further to the East where the villages of Cortiçada and Monte Leal were much nearer to the fire origin. The whole hillside above the villages was now burning. There are no houses high up on the side of the mountain.
I took the decision to walk up to our friend's house to verify that he was safe. All was well and he was prepared to evacuate with the important belongings, I stayed for a while watching the firefront getting closer.
By 4pm the fire had now started to move down the hillside towards the railway station, and toward our house of course.
Unfortunately, another fire had broken out some 17-18km away near Águas and it seems that some of the aircraft had been relocated to that area.
However, the small planes returned for a brief session to attack the fire and a couple of well-targetted runs finally stopped the fire in its tracks.
The fire at our end of the hillside was now hopefully over, but it was a different story just a couple of kilometers away where the fire had been very close to the villages and was still burning in patches.
Because the aircraft were prohibited from operating at night they had to stop soon after 8pm, but the fire was still going strong, and by 9 o'clock it was very visible in the distance, just firefighters on the ground working hard to get it all under control.
By the next morning, there was little to see except for the charred hillside and a few wispy smoke plumes.
There were still over 100 firefighters on the scene keeping things under observation and stopping any re-ignition before it could start again.
As far as we are aware, there were no serious injuries, and no homes were destroyed but some property other than land was unfortunately destroyed.
We also know that one of the houses we were considering purchasing was at the very edge of the fire and may have been affected.