May Forest Fire Season begin

Just a shoutout to the most serious calamity of our modern history.(not counting the earthquake ofc..) A thunderbolt hit a tree and it started burning and quickly spread around the village of Pedrógão Grande, surrounding the villagers and the people, who, trying to flee the calamity to a safe place, got cornered by the flames and burned to death in their cars (including 4 children as young as 4.)

An 8 year old girl was however one of the few survivors, and was found wandering near a road running from the fire with her skin burned.

This is the 3rd most tragic (forest) fire of the European Continent, after a major fire in Aquitaine in 1949 and a major fire in Greece 10 years ago that killed 100 people

62 people confirmed dead and it is expected by the Government that this number may rise, and may rise considerably, as the village 24 hours ago was completely surrounded, no eletricity, water or phone service was being provided.

I just wrote this thread as more of an eye-opener to underline the importance of firefighters in our modern society, they are as they say, the soldiers of peace, yet we tend do diss them and forget them, we tend to under-supply them, especially in my country, where firefighters don't get the means they deserve and they need, and they are sometimes in some cases forced to do some sort of lottery thing to get funds for an ambulance for example because the Government just doesn't extend them.
Forest fires though are everyone's fault in today's society. Your neighbour, yourself and your household, refuse to clean your properties, in order to prevent for example possible fires from spreading out.

Cleaning forests used to be a policy back in the 40's and 50's and 60's by our fascist government of Salazar, as Salazar's extreme ruralism and traditionalism compelled him to defend rural Portugal, a refuge of virtue and morality but we don't do it anymore, and most of the people on other countries don't do it either. It's start we start thinking about prevention, rather than redemption.

Yet, these calamities show what's best in a nation and in the people of the affected countries and humanity. Calamity tend to unite people around a common cause and fight for it, which is what's happening today, and will happen for the next months, as usual in hot-countries like Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece. Calamities like these also show how countries help each other, nonetheless, especially our neighbours and close partners. For instance, Spain was the first country to voluntarily help fighting this forest fire and is sending help to our Portuguese Forces. EU is also sending help in any way directly possible and some circles even say Russia might do the same. In the past we've had Italian, French (last year), Moroccans (last year), Spaniards and even Russians helping us in these calamities. Disaster seems to unite us.

















The hills in the distance are all on fire and burned down, this is a before-image of the landscape, with the Pedrógão Grande's dam.




Our President and the under-secretary of Interior upon the hearing of the possible death toll



Sorry for the long text and seriousness, but this is just to underline the importance of preventing this and the cruelty of things like this, whose size could be prevented, if Society cared.

I just heard about it this noon... I felt like crying about it. We've suffered many stupid human made forest fires in Galicia and many other northern zones. Idk how to feel about such a dangerous and surprisingly deadly fire. It was quite a shock to hear that a fire so close was doing all that harm. Was it really produced by a thunder?

I wish forests were given more importance instead of suffering cutbacks in their surveillance and maintenance... fuck sake. I hope the government takes notes and takes measures...

Általa írva RaulPB, 18.06.2017 at 15:31

I just heard about it this noon... I felt like crying about it. We've suffered many stupid human made forest fires in Galicia and many other northern zones. Idk how to feel about such a dangerous and surprisingly deadly fire. It was quite a shock to hear that a fire so close was doing all that harm. Was it really produced by a thunder?

I wish forests were given more importance instead of suffering cutbacks in their surveillance and maintenance... fuck sake. I hope the government takes notes and takes measures...

Általa írva RaulPB, 18.06.2017 at 15:31

I just heard about it this noon... I felt like crying about it. We've suffered many stupid human made forest fires in Galicia and many other northern zones. Idk how to feel about such a dangerous and surprisingly deadly fire. It was quite a shock to hear that a fire so close was doing all that harm. Was it really produced by a thunder?

I wish forests were given more importance instead of suffering cutbacks in their surveillance and maintenance... fuck sake. I hope the government takes notes and takes measures...

It was caused by a thunder they found the starting point, but theres an investigation under way.


The United Nations has officially offered help aswell