The politicians have started to arrive in the Monchique area, picking through the charred remains for a positive spin.
Portugal’s Minister for Internal Affairs, Eduardo Cabrita, (pictured) said that the “great victory” had been that nobody had died in the fire that laid waste to over 27,000 hectares.
The lack of a body count meant that the civil protection authority’s firefighting management had been “notable” and that we should celebrate zero deaths, said Cabrita, sent ahead of the Prime Minister and President to prepare the ground in making this disaster a great victory.
The PM dragged himself away from his holiday to visit Monchique later on Friday afternoon and met with mayors from Monchique, Silves and Portimão, the president of AMAL and the President of the Algarve Tourism Region, among other very important people.
António Costa says he will take stock of the situation and "see what needs to be done to rebuild," while praising the emergency services.
The Prime Minister told reporters that the priority had been “to safeguard human life and this was achieved," adding, as one of his sound-bites, that, "a burning house can be repaired, human life is irreparable."
The Prime Minister praised the work done by all those who fought the fire and found time to highlight the prevention and scrub-clearance work that has been done, "reducing the risk of fire compared to last year," which was of little comfort to locals who live in this known high-risk area.
António Costa said the scrub clean-up will continue across the country, "work that started this winter but it is a task that we must continue in order to reduce more and more the risk of fire.”
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, will visit the Monchique area on Saturday to dispense further words of wisdom but until the full post-operational report has been published, locals will be making up their own minds as to what worked and what didn’t.
The current focus is on eucalyptus, thousands of hectares of it, nearly half the municipality of Monchique’s forests are planted with this imported, highly flammable species used in the pulp and paper industry.
Meanwhile, the shocked rural population will pick through what remains of their homes and businesses to see what can be done. For many, this fire is the end of the road with 50 properties destroyed and farms reduced to burnt fields and trees, now without workable machinery or livestock.
For a graphic of the fire's destructive coverage, see: https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1027826527952691201
and to see the destruction of habitat up close, https://www.facebook.com/MarceloMartins1996/videos/10214081565825695/
