We're sure many of you have seen footage over the summer from the terrible wildfires that have taken place this year in Europe - mainly in Portugal; Spain and Greece. It has brought a real focus to the impact of climate change, which is prolonging the fire period by several months. It's estimated that more than 430,000 hectares of forest area burned in the EU over the course of the summer- that's twice as much as usual.
The photo above was taken on a recent day trip to Marmalete. It's a small village near the Serra de Monchique, a range of rolling mountains clad in heavy forest. You can see the scorched trees and woodland from a recent fire which quickly spread through the countryside.
Sadly when we stopped at Marmalete, we saw the image above, and in the summer that can only mean one thing. From the 1st of July to the 30th of September, it's forbidden to burn waste; or have any fires outdoors. The ruling can be extended by the authorities if the weather is abnormally dry, or temperatures remain high. So the huge cloud of smoke in the photo above was a large forest fire.
One of the first things we did on arrival in Portugal was download the Fogos.pt app on our phones - it means you can check the fire risk in your area, and see when they're under control. We could see from the app that the fire was north of a small village called Bensafrim. As we were sitting at a cafe in Marmalete, two water skimming planes flew right overhead.
On our drive back home we stopped off at the Barragem da Bravura (the local reservoir), and witnessed the incredible sight of the amphibious planes skimming water from the reservoir without the need to land.
They then flew past us, dropping a mix of water and fire suppressant over the fire - just an incredible sight to see, and the skill involved was hugely impressive.
We could still smell smoke in the air the following morning at our home and reports say it took over 179 firefighters; backed by 60 vehicles, and 8 planes to eventually put it out. Having seen just how quickly fire can spread out here, and how deadly it can be for those caught up in it, we couldn''t be more humbled by the bravery of those fighting the fires.
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