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“Consequência – Depois dos Incêndios” Is Now Available To Watch

Almost 2 weeks have passed since the fires of Monchique were finally extinguished. Once the fires were out, I made a trip around the locally burnt areas and was shocked at just how large an area was affected and the amount of devastation left behind, I was (and still am) genuinely saddened by the scenes. I was determined to try and capture the scale of what happened to the almost 28,000 hectares burnt within just 7 days.

It has taken a fair amount of filming and editing to bring you “Consequência – Depois dos Incêndios” which translates to “Consequence – After the Fires”. Up until yesterday, I was still filming and still you can see areas of ash with smoke rising and occasionally there seems to be small flare-ups in the areas, particularly around Monchique. As you will see in the film, some of the ground has white ash spots or holes where trees once stood and have completely vanished. Other areas have an eerie beauty, such as the Eucalyptus trees with their scorched leaves, at first they appear to be stunning Autumn colours, of course, they are not.

Feel free to share this YouTube video, however, one thing I strongly ask is it is not used in any political argument about how bad or good the emergency services dealt with the situation. I did not create this film with any bias towards either side of the argument. For the record though, I am amazed at how well properties have been saved. The video is available in both HD and 4K if you have the Internet bandwidth and/or equipment to play it in those resolutions.

{Remember to watch in HD or 4K if possible}


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“Consequência – depois dos incêndios” Filming Complete.

The devastation fires have long gone, although there are still patches smoking and a couple of flare-ups still occurring, and I’ve finally captured Drone footage from many areas inside the burnt area.

The scale and size of destruction is so large that I want to be able to show others just how large this fire was. It will now take a few days to edit all the clips into a short video titled “Consequência – depois dos incêndios”, which translates to “Consequence – after the fires”.

Here is a quick photo I snapped whilst the drone was hovering above an almost totally destroyed Eucalyptus area near Monchique.

Destroyed Eucalyptus

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Monchique Fire Aftermath at Talurdo (Video)

UPDATE: My entire video shoot titled “Consequência – Depois dos Incêndios” is now available to view HERE

A small area near to São Marcos da Serra, Talurdo saw the closest fire to our location. I documented this on the 8th August. Yesterday (10th August) I returned to the scene to capture some Drone footage. I didn’t get as much as I intended as there was a large presence of Army and Bombeiros on standby and I didn’t want to annoy anyone. You can also notice in the distance a fire-fighting plane on one of the clips. A hotspot had ignited and they called in air-support. Once I saw planes in the vicinity, I grounded the Drone.

The area here used to be Cork Oak and , I believe, Medronho Trees. Some of the Cork Oaks maybe lucky, but many are lost and irreplaceable in our lifetime.

If I’m completely honest, I had at least one tear in my eye editing this clip. Please feel free to share this blog and/or the YouTube but if you intend to use in the media, please contact me first.

{Remember to watch in HD or 4K if possible}


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Just When We Thought The Local Fires Had Gone!

Day 6 of the terrible fires which started in the Serra do Monchique last Friday and we thought all the action had headed south towards Silves. However, I looked out of the window to a huge plume of smoke which looked very close. A few locals also messaged me to ask if I knew anything about it. This being after I have spent the last few days chasing the fires to provide live footage via our village Facebook page to update the locals and others with an interest in São Marcos da Serra. So I jumped on the Quad bike and went off in search of the fire. It took a while to get to a vantage point as I didn’t want to be down wind of the fire for obvious reasons.

The wind was very strong which was really fanning the flames but as with previous days it was pushing the fire away from the village. Unfortunatly it was pushing it south towards the towns (and area between) Silves and Messines. Tonight, this fire is now causing a huge problem for the residents in its path and hope it can be yet again tamed before causing any serious damage.

Here are a few pictures I took from my vantage point. Watching the planes, especially the Canadair CL-415 swooping down was a fantastic sight, just a shame its in these horrible circumstances.

{Click image(s) to view on Flickr - opens in new tab}

Day 6: Going strong

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Another Day, The Same Fires!

Yet again, the fires burn out of control and now it’s started to creep ever closer to larger populations such as Silves. Of course, the further south the fire reaches, the more people will be in it’s path.

Here in the São Marcos da Serra area, we again keep watching the wind direction as today a fierce front is burning not too far away, now to the South West of the village. The wind direction seems to be switching from Northerly to Westerly which is keeping the fire away from the village.

As I have done for the last couple of days I decided to help the locals in the Village by informing them via the local Facebook Page of the fire’s location.

Here are a few photos I took whilst out.


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A Crazy Day Of Watching Fires, Followed By Another “Tree of Life”

Today has been a crazy day, after staying awake a lot of the night watching the events unfold around Monchique I woke to the reports that the fire was “heading towards São Marcos da Serra”. It seems as though the media mis-interpreted the authorities and over-exaggerated the situation. I headed to a nearby ridge to see for myself and indeed the fire was nowhere to be seen, just distance plumes of smoke. Later in the afternoon, I ventured further afield to locate the fires. It was a long way from the village which at one point did flare up quite large, however, after what seemed like it was left to burn most of the day, a few airplanes later and the smoke seemed to disappear to almost nothing.

There are still fires burning, however, the local village (and our Quinta) seem to be well out of reach currently. For the last few nights I have posted bright red glowing sky photos, but tonight, the skies are much much darker with just a faint red glow which I assume is from the fires re-establishing in the Monchique area.

You may remember a photograph I posted back in January where I used a Cork Oak as a silhouette against the setting sun.

Tonight, this same tree was backlit by the red skies of the fires. It may seem a bit dramatic, however after the last couple of nights, this is now very tame compared to what we have seen. Hopefully, the horrible events of the last few days are coming to an end.

{Click image(s) to view on Flickr - opens in new tab}

Tree of Life
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