The smell of smoke is still very intense and you lose sight of the kilometers and kilometers of burned area. At the door of the houses, people are trying to clean and take care of what's left, but for many, it's hard to envision what the future will be like.
Bárbara Santos has a house right next to the place, in Baiona, where the fire in São Teotónio broke out last Saturday, August 5th. It was there, in a picnic area, that it is believed that everything started.
Her husband was one of the first people to call for help and to fear that the fire would take everything away.
«It was exactly from there that the smoke started to come, but, suddenly, it had already crossed the road and came to this side», points out Bárbara Santos, while she is stroking the cats that, like her, managed to escape the fire. The flames will have started with a picnic, and the Judiciary Police are already investigating whether it originated in negligent or willful behavior.
«We, fortunately, are here, but the fire destroyed our life's work. My husband is 60 years old, he's worked in agriculture all his life and I don't know what he's going to do now », she tells us.
There were several hectares of pasture for animals, pines and cork oaks, from which he would soon come to remove the cork that is the family's income.
Bárbara still cannot quantify the damage, but claims that it will be thousands and thousands of euros.
“I really don't know what the future will be like. We have some cattle left, but we don't even have food to feed them because all the grass and bales of straw burned».
Despite being there, on the edge of the EN 120, in the parish of São Teotónio, where she makes her living, Bárbara, her husband and son live in Odeceixe, a village right next door, but already in the Algarve municipality of Aljezur, which also was greatly affected by the fire.
«I wasn't here when the fire started, but I came to help. When they called me to say that the fire was moving to Odeceixe, I had to go there».
On the way, by car, Bárbara tells that she lived «a real hell». «At one point we were surrounded by flames and had to wait for the fire to pass so we could continue the route», she says.
In Odeceixe, he says that it was the work of a population that came together to help the firefighters and other operators that saved the houses.
Maria Alzira has not only her home in this Algarve village, but also the business of a lifetime.
At the door of the Claro mini market, which opened 42 years ago, we find two people sadly commenting on the trail left by the fire. Even so, when we pass by them, a «good morning» is not left unsaid.
We entered. Behind the counter is Maria Alzira, who tells how difficult it was to see the fire so close to her home and business.
At 69 years old, he was afraid of losing everything he had built throughout his life, and tells how he reacted when approaching the flames.
«I put what could protect us outside, I turned on all the taps and we started to wet everything around us. The fire came here very quickly and when it got here there were still no firefighters to defend us».
With a saddened air, Maria Alzira comments that the land around the village was not clean and that she feared that this could happen.
"We all helped fight the fire and that's how we managed to save our homes."
But Odeceixe is not just for those who are there all year round. Here, many also live from tourism and, although the fire did not destroy houses, it painted the surrounding landscape black.
At Casas do Moinho, it is heard that now the objective is «to work to put Odeceixe back on the map for the best reasons».
Ao Sul Informação, Arnaldo Couto, owner of this village tourism, reveals that the guests, fortunately, decided to stay.
«They left at that moment, when the fire was active, but after the situation was under control they returned because they felt confident and, as we can see, nothing here was affected and we are safe», he reinforces.
2,2 kilometers further on, we arrive at Parque de Campismo de São Miguel, the first place to be evacuated due to the fire.
It's August and the scene should be very busy, but despite all the campers having managed to return the night before, most decided to pack up their tents and leave.
Ricardo Santos, manager of the campsite, refuses to comment on what happened. «What I can say is that the park is intact, there is no service affected, and that, at this moment, we are waiting for the summer to resume», he stresses.
But if some want to dispel the idea of a catastrophe, others are unable to do so because, in fact, the fire destroyed a lot.
Luísa Botelho, owner of Stubbornness, wait for us at the side of the road, before the curve to turn towards Vale Juncal.
The way to the award-winning rural tourism, which was consumed by the flames, now has to be done through the back because the bridge over which all the customers used to pass is completely destroyed, as well as three of the main suites and much of the surrounding area.
«We are talking about more than 600 thousand euros of loss and the investment of a lifetime, where I go, every month, to withdraw my income», he tells us.
«We've been here for 10 years and this has never happened to us because the prevailing winds are southwest, always towards the mountains. That's how it was on the first two days of the fire, but on the third, the wind changed and became from the northeast and the GNR asked us to evacuate».
Around 13 pm on Monday, Luísa was forced to leave the land, but asked that her houses be protected and that firefighters be stationed there, which, she says, “did not happen”.
«At 15:30 pm, already desperate, without information, I decided to dodge all the barriers that were on the roads, I arrived here around 16:00 pm and the first house was already on fire. Distressed, I called the GNR to ask for help, went back to the road, where firefighters were, and asked for help, but the firefighter told me that he had no instructions to leave. It was about 18:30 pm when someone came and everything had already been burned down, only that house at the end was left », she says, desolate.
«Answers and a lot of help», is what the owner of Teima now expects, who has already contacted Turismo de Portugal and asked the mayor of Odemira for help, but until Wednesday afternoon, there was still no response.
The grass has turned from green to yellow, the three main suites, decorated «with everything good and the best», are completely destroyed, the donkeys managed to survive, but now walk in a valley painted in black.
«The system failed again – and a lot – and it wasn't for lack of requests for help», says Luísa Botelho, who says that the biggest fear is «not having the money to rebuild this».
In an interview with Sul Informação, Hélder Guerreiro, mayor of Odemira, does not deny "the tragedy" of this fire, which destroyed more than 8 hectares, homes, businesses, "dreams and much of the municipality's economic activity", which confirms, "it now needs of all our attention”.
«First, we are going to take care of the living – which are all of them, fortunately -, creating mechanisms to respond to emergencies, namely people who were left homeless, and we are also going to coordinate with producers and farmers the donation of food for the animals that were left without food» , he reveals, adding that there has been a great wave of solidarity in the county.
Despite the damage being enormous «and for thousands of inhabitants», Hélder Guerreiro emphasizes that «the response was quick», namely to help the almost 1500 people who had to leave the most dangerous areas.
Many spent the last few nights at Escola EB 2, 3 de São Teotónio, but on Wednesday afternoon, when the Sul Informação there, the atmosphere was calm. Everyone had returned to their homes after days of great fear.
At the door, we spoke with Dário Guerreiro, president of the Parish Council of São Teotónio, who, since Saturday, has always been on the ground and has been talking to people, many of whom, «by experience», have helped the Civil Protection to understand where the fire headed.
He didn't want to show his tiredness on his face and, from his words, it was clear that «there is still a lot to do».
Dário Guerreiro speaks of a «scourge» that destroyed a large part of the mountainous area of São Teotónio, which was the livelihood of many families, some «in need».
Now it's time to continue entering the burned areas to quantify all that the fire took, something that Entidade Regional de Turismo (ERT) of Alentejo and Ribatejo said that it is already doing so.
There are those who speak of a system that has failed again, but Dário Guerreiro says that, «whoever had the opportunity, on Monday, to be on the fire fronts, saying or pointing out failures will never be fair, because, with the proportions and weather conditions that happened that day, it was impossible by any means to put out the fire. But if there were flaws they should be discussed, of course, and, of course, there are things to improve».
Hélder Guerreiro says that «there are lessons that we were not able to learn from previous fires».
«We have greatly improved our response and combat capacity, but we are clearly not investing and improving capacities in terms of planning, forest reorganization and prevention. I think that's where we all have to make an investment effort, because the fire does not know the administrative borders that we, for example, insist that exist between the Algarve and the Alentejo », he says.
As for the bridge that is already being made with the Government to articulate responses and aid, the mayor of Odemira reveals that he knows, for now, that the Secretary of State for Tourism will visit the territory to speak with the owners of the accommodation.
«Many were not affected by the burning of their house, but the surrounding system burned and that has an impact, of course. The territory of Odemira sells the landscape, which is now completely transformed and, because of that, these types of tourism ended up suffering losses: from people who had to leave, anticipating the end of their holidays, but also from those who now, for fear, no longer want to come. What they do wrong, because the territory continues to be beautiful, but that is a right that people have», he reinforces.
For those who stay, there will be, every day, a black trail that does not let them forget what they went through.
What color is the future of those whose present is painted with ashes? Bárbara and Luísa are two of the people who don't know the answer, but are hoping for help to get back on their feet.
Photos: Mariana Sedge | Sul Informação
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