/out/ burning in Portugal About 60 people have been killed so

>>1041079
What the fuck is going on over there?
I don't follow the news.

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>>1041087
There's a forest fire raging in parkland in central Portugal and lots of people are getting caught in it. Pic related.

>>1041094
I'm assuming those people are dead.
They must have been really desperate to drive between those trees.

I've seen the effects of a big bonfire on cars and it will literally melt every rubber and plastic part off.
Melted radiator, cooling fan, tyers, and air filter box kills the car and it's passengers stone fucking dead way before the glass starts to go soft.

In modern cars especially, with plastic front mudguards that melt easy, there is no protection for the tyres.

I bet it was fucking Eucalyptus's fault. What a piece of shit tree.
Ten years ago I applied for a logger job in Spanish/Portugish border region of Extramadura.
You were given a pickup and an axe, and a thousand Eucalyptus trees to clear. Some priest had planted the trees 50 (now 60) years ago.
No chainsaw because the trees were an extreme risk of spontaneous combustion. Evaporating oils or some shit.
Didn't get the job. I'm assuming the guy that did is still at it.

Anyway, stay safe Portugals.

>>1041109
>They must have been really desperate to drive between those trees.

They couldn't see where they were going. Too much smoke.

>I bet it was fucking Eucalyptus's fault.

It always is, every year. I live next to a bunch of them and they had to cut down as many as they could a few years ago, put up a tall concrete fence around them facing the road, and we're still at risk if anything ever lights up back there. All it takes is one single tree and the fire spreads fucking everywhere. Not only that but their stupid long ass dead leaves are always all over the road.

Lol so many countries have such shitty crisis response crews

>>1041109
Yes, organic oils evaporate through oxidization and release heat. You can make a fire if you soak a crumpled rag with it.

Am I wrong in assuming that these fires would have ended with few, if any fatalities if the same scale fire happened in America?

>>1041171
You are not wrong.

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I'm still waiting to hear from Portugal-anon.

>>1041171
When a big fire happens in the US, wildfire crews come in from multiple states to help fight it. They keep constant track of where the fire line is, where the wind is blowing, and how long it will be until the fire reaches anywhere important. There are also controlled evacuations along roads that look better than that one.

States out west are more prepared for this stuff because it gets so hot and dry in the summer and most of the trees are super-flammable conifers. Say what you will about California, but they know how to deal with fire. I can only imagine how a European country that isn't used to fire would react.

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>>1041079
fires in general are pretty scary, i once woke up to a fire alarm and slightly foggy hut. at first you don't realize what's going on but than after like 10 seconds comes a massive adrenaline flood. only time i ever thought i was about to panic.

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Around this time last year some kids lit two simultaneous forest fires in my town in an apparent attempt to overwhelm fire crews and cause destruction. One of them was in "my" woods (not that I own that part but it's where I frequent) so a couple days later I took a walk to check it out. Should have brought my real camera, but the size of the burn zone was actually quite a bit bigger than I'd thought. The nearest road access would have been a few hundred feet away from this area. Under the circumstances they did a pretty good job and nearby towns all came to help, plus the State Police sent the air wing to try and spot the little bastards.

Anyway the day I went walking through I bumped into a cop who was staking out the area hoping the little shits would return to see the damage they did. He didn't seem to suspect me.

>>1041271
Of all the states in the US, California has absolutely the worst track record for dealing with wildfires and no ability to control even small ones without pulling fire crews from other states.

This is not true of the other fire-prone states, who get bigger fires more frequently and manage to control them with fewer people and smaller budgets.

>I can only imagine how a European country that isn't used to fire
Portugal averages 3-4 major forest fires a year tho, and have for the last nearly 50 years. They should be used to them by now.

>>1041302
4 fires a year and there are never any deaths.
I don't think they have had anything on this scale before.

>>1041322
>never any deaths
Forest fires kill about 10 people a year in California as a 50-year average.

California had 4 last year, 3 in 2015, 1 in 2014, 2 in 2013, etc etc.

In fact, California accounts for over 40% of all wildfire deaths in the US every year.
>source
https://www.nifc.gov/safety/safety_documents/Fatalities-by-Year.pdf

>>1041332
I think he was talking about Portchugle, not California

>still not word from Portugal-Anon

>>1041332
>>1041322
In fact, 60 people have been killed in forest fires since 2000, out of the GRAND TOTAL of 299 people killed in wildfires in the US since 2000.
>>1041333
Oh. Whoops.

>>1041079
Portugal anon reporting in, first of all let me say thank you for the concern. Second it's absolutely unbelievable what happened during this weekend.
I went enjoy /out/ up north during the entire weekend and I didn't knew about what was happening until about 1am of Sunday morning when my mother called me asking if I was close to a massive fire that was going on, fortunately for me the fire was in the center of Portugal and I was like 350km far away.
Then I went to sleep and in the morning was when I acceded internet to see how bad it was and realized the massive number of causalities, actually my eyes teared a little. Entire villages burned to the ground, lots of old folks that simply didn't have the means to save themselves, entire families that were caught by flames and smoke and died inside their cars with their little kids, it's so very saddening and revolting at same time.
It keeps happening over and over again, decades of this shit going on and the consecutive governments keep blaming their problems on previous ruling parties.

Maybe some of you guys remember, during as early as April if I remember right, I created a thread on /out/ alerting that forest fires were already happening, strong and early in the season, it was only a matter of time until so many people died.
We don't have terrorism here but the problem is the same, during the previous years 2, 3, 4 or 5 people died, including firefighters, and everyone assumed that was unavoidable, like well we did everything we could so shit happens, nobody's fault ayy lmao mentality. This fire alone killed so far 63 confirmed people, but it's expected to have killed many more since entire there are many villages to be reached since the fire keeps going.

Also let me personally thank you Spanish friends for your fast availability to help, the same goes to the French and Italian.

>>1041394
I am imaging that Portugal doesn't do much in the realm of fire prevention. Clearing out brush, creating fire access roads, pressuring people to not set oil drums on fire in the woods, etc

>>1041109
>They must have been really desperate to drive between those trees
They were, due to smoke people crashed their cars against each other most died, some escaped with burns.

>I bet it was fucking Eucalyptus's fault. What a piece of shit tree.
That specific road was surround by pine trees to but yes, eucalyptus is a major problem, our entire forest has been replaced by that fucking invasive specie that someone thought it was a good idea to introduce. It burns so fucking high and even its oils are highly inflamable in high temperatures. And during the weekend temperatures were well over 40ºc

>Anyway, stay safe Portugals.
Thanks a lot.

>>1041156
Well I can only talk about my country here but in regards of forest fires it is an absolute mess, sadly.

>>1041271
>I can only imagine how a European country that isn't used to fire would react.
This shouldn't apply here since we have been dealing with this problem for decades. I will try to name a few problems and huge fuck up we have.
There's no way around it, everyone know how shitty our economy is so yes, of course money and investment in fire fighting capabilities is an huge part of it. Then there are no really directives in regards of organization of the territories and its properties having in account the weather, geography, populacional density, types of trees and so on and so forth. Let me backtrack here a little, we actually have said directives and studies made upon them, they're simply not implement at a national level.
For example in regards of prevention we have laws that define that forest land must be kept clean and within some distance between homes, but unfortunately it doesn't really happen at all. On private or state land, yes, there are lots of land that owners who know best actually protect themselves and do it but in most part they don't. The core of Portugal is the coast as everyone knows, the forgotten Portugal as we commonly call it here is a mess of abandoned terrain and small villages of old people who either don't have the economic means to maintain their land or they lack the health to do it so. There are hefty fines that come with the law but it still doesn't change it. There are lots of abandoned terrain that nobody cares or even knows who the owners are.

Other than that we also have the entire logistical aspect of the fire combat itself, for example half of our heavy firefighting Kamov helicopters are not in conditions to fly, and they have been in that condition for almost ten years now!! And we only have a total of 6 of them for the entire country!!

>>1041412
>cont
Our air force don't even have the means to do what other Mediterranean countries like Spain, Italy or Greece do and fight the fires itself, it was allocated to private hands. We invested almost 500M€ in a national emergency communication system that would allow for better interaction between field units but it miserably fails every year, it failed again this weekend. Fun fact, said systems was negotiated years ago by at the time minister of internal affairs which is our today's prime minister. The fuck face even had the nerve to address the media and claim that the failure that happened didn't affect the operational efforts at all.

I could be here the rest of the day pointing problems but it's tiresome and probably few of you care even to read so let me finalized this point with our voluntarie firefighters. Those poor guys are the ones that get the heat for the most time despite throwing themselves in front of the flames to save houses and other people. Their reward? A couple €, lack of equipment and tons of criticism meanwhile the politicians back each others like they are the heroes here. After all it's easier to blame the João after him leaving his actual job to come and help than actually blame the chiefs of state, and this goes is directed to the media too.

>>1041302
>They should be used to them by now.
Absolutely but if it isn't football, beach or done for political gains no one cares. I love this place to the bits and will never leave but fucking hell are we retarded.

>>1041398
Exactly. Pretty much to the point.

I forget to mention before despite mentioning the economic factor, our paper industry is very influential here, many jobs really on it, and even if a forest burns, eucalyptus wood can still be used with almost its entire quality but for a third of the price.

To finalize, our penal system is, like a good part of the Europe too fucking lenient, people that set fires to the woods not very often get to do actual prison time because fuck it, poor little guy must be mentally ill to do it.

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For you guys to have a better idea it, this photo was shared by a Spanish unit that came to help us.

>>1041302
That's because California's state wildland firefighters suck dick and get paid way too much.

Sharing a couple links here if anyone's interested.

>http://expresso.sapo.pt/sociedade/2017-06-19-Perdi-a-minha-familia.-Nao-as-consegui-salvar-Pedrogao-Grande
This poor guy left home to run away from fire. He and his wife and two daughters (12 and 15 yo) left in two different cars, he was able to save 4 people that were with him but his family din't make it.

>https://fogos.pt/
live map from the different fires going. Red dots are the ones active

>http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/especiais/tragedia-em-pedrogao-grande/2017-06-18-Novas-imagens-de-drone-o-cenario-de-destruicao-provocado-pelo-fogo
Drone images from the "death road"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NIj4b1nRfds

>http://www.elmundo.es/opinion/2017/06/19/5946acec22601da2128b45d3.html
Spanish newspaper saying what Portuguese media is afraid to say.

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There has been so many fires in the mountains of my city throughout my life. Zaca, gap, tea, and jeususita. There may have been more. I know painted cave fire and some others occurred before I was born.
It's very sad because many people lost their home but at the same time there is something so beautiful and awe inspiring about them. I think zaca was the biggest of the ones I listed but jesusita happened on the montain side facing the city.
I remember watching when the fire first started when I was in PE class. It was just a wisp of smoke and i thought it would be put out easily, but next thing you know it spread all across thee mountain side.
I remember on the day the fire peaked it looked like the mountains all the way south were covered in fire. It was raining ash and the entire sky was covered in smoke making it dark and giving the light from the sun a reddish color. I thought it looked really cool. The other kids and I were yelling it's the apocalypse.
That final night I think some family who were evacuated earlier were staying with us. The fire pretty much doubled in size or something during the time we were asleep. We were woken up and told to evacuate. When I looked out it seemed like the entire mountain on either direction was covered in flames. It looked like pic related, even though it is apparently gap, all along the mountain range. reminded me of mordor or something. Thank god for the firefighters. Would have been much worse
Sorry for the blog post. Any anons with fire stories?

>>1041079
Oh no

>>1041394
Fuck that's crazy. So sad.

>>1041171
No, and if they happened in Sweden, one or two would die at worst.

>>1041454
sad and horrifying.

thank you for sharing your thoughts and this news. the disaster isn't being covered in our news, and the historical context you provide is very helpful in understanding why this is happening.

>>1041725
You can't compare Sweden to central Portugal. For example when the fire started temperatures were close to 45°c and the humidity below 30%, to this add winds of 40/50km/h with shifting direction and hilly terrain. It was a shit show to begin with.

>>1041728
Very sad indeed and no problem, anon.
There was this young couple from Lisbon that were visiting the place with their two little children. The last thing it was know from them is a picture they shared on facebook of the entire family enjoying and having a happy day on the pool. Then the bad news came and it's being reported that they all perished in the fire. :'((

Portuguese anon here.
A small and sad update, unfortunately there are news popping up that a Canadair fire fighting airplane might have fall. This is heartbreaking. The fire also keeps going strong.

>>1041302
The biggest issue California has with wildfires is that there are a shitload of people here that live in high fire danger areas. More people => more shit to protect => more resources needed. Other fire prone areas in the US don't have anywhere close to as many people in such places.

>>1042073
Well it was fake news after all. The secretary of state confirmed moments ago that it did not happen.

Most beautiful girl I've ever known was from Portugal.

>>1042100
Mustache fetish? Also I'm guessing the list is pretty short

>>1042230
/int/ pls

>>1042230
Girl was obsessed with waxing shit bruh. Maybe she could grow a nice stache, but it never came to be. She was all over that shit. She was from the Azores. Maybe they are of better quality? She was foreign exchange, they tend to be higher class anyway.

>>1042252
Maybe. Just busting your balls anonbro.

>>1042252
>Azores
>Inbred people
>Better at anything
You probably got lucky anon, good for you. Northern Portuguese women is where is at. Or if you like darker skin then Lisbon.

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BIG FIRE IN UTAH

Some dumb fuck used a weed torch during a heat wave.

>>1043211
I love how half of the forest fires in America qualify as arson

Rookie American wildland firefighter here, I'm happy to answer any questions anons have/give insight.
Likely the biggest reason America does so much better with fighting fires is we have a very set command and operating structure, it's very expansive but not overly complicated.
Additionally Fire is a big business, it brings in a lot of money, so more money generally attracts higher quality workers.
unfortunately there's getting to be too much bureaucracy and people trying to make firefighting 100% safe, and that's probably a lot of why you see things like California not being able to contain their fires.

>>1043215
Not quite, the majority of fires here are from lightning. It's still baffling how people still do this stupid shit though, there's always an investigation, they just about always get caught, and the punishments are incredibly extreme. Oregon has a 7 year mandatory minimum if you start a forest fire.

>>1043216
You'll come to find out that theres a shitload of fire bugs in the wildland firefighter group, rookie.

Dickheads get tired of not having deployments.

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>>1041394
Good luck bro.

There will be a lot of finger pointing and stuff goes on afterwards but life will go on eventually.

>>1041400
>due to smoke people crashed their cars against each other

This happened in our fires too. There were alloy engine blocks flowing across the ground.

>>1043298
This sounds almost as bad as pedos in churches

sometimes it's comfy to live in a big city, having concrete around you for miles no matter how dry the weather gets you are safe from fires.

epidemics are a different issue.

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>>1044318
exactly

>>1044318
I live in a small city surrounded by mountains and forests and I don't lose any sleep over it. You're just a pussy.

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>>1041109

Pic is my car after house fire. :(

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>>1044341

Total loss.
0/10, would not recommend.
Have all my well-wishes, Portugal-anons.

>>1044325
see? huge fire, building right next to it is fine.

>>1044344
That happens with forest fires too, dweeb

>>1044341
Looks like a marshmallow.

>>1044341
did he died?

>>1044375

No, we got out okay.
The dogs burned to death because they tried to hide. :(
We tried to get them out but they were too scared and wouldn't come when called, and the flames were already going across the ceiling. We couldn't get to them to carry them out.
Prefab homes burn so fucking fast it's unreal. Fire chief said it's all the glue used to put them together, hold the wall paneling on and so forth.
Accelerant everywhere, basically.
Those twisted metal shapes in the foreground of the second shot?
Those are the steel support I-beams that ran under the floor.
Some of them got hot enough to droop over the concrete foundation supports like taffy.

>>1044372

Yeah, toasted it pretty good, if a bit unevenly.

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>>1044401
>The dogs burned to death because they tried to hide. :(
I'm so sorry anon.