Eco123 Revista da Economia e Ecologia
08/08/2026 – 08/08/2026 by Uwe Heitkamp
Edition 30.2026
Forest fires. They destroy a lot of nature, and quite a few houses too. But you can survive a forest fire. You just have to be quick enough and know how to protect your house. That’s what I learned in Monchique. How do you do this?
Following the disastrous forest fires in Monchique and its surrounding area in 2018, only a few homeowners and landowners had the strength and the money to knock down their burnt-out houses and clear their plots of land, plant new trees and convert the ruins into fire-resistant homes.
Scientists have long been telling us that we should prepare for the climate crisis. But adaptation alone is not enough. Everyone must realise that, if we continue to burn petrol and diesel fuel, then we are heading for a three-degree rise in global temperatures and we will no longer be able to adapt.
However, the mayor and his administrative team in the region have the power to help. I am talking about the town hall in Monchique, where Mayor Paulo Alves from the PS, his council and his administration, did not consider it important to name the victims of 2018 as the ‘Winners of the Year’ for 2026. When people lose everything – their homes and all their possessions – surely the local council’s top priority should be to ensure that these victims are better protected against future wildfires, if only because the council would otherwise lose out on tax revenue…
Water is everything; without water, everything is nothing. At the very least, every house in Monchique must be fitted with its own cistern to collect rainwater. That is the first step. Houses have to be retrofitted in order to make them fire-resistant. How many houses in Monchique have been built to be fire-resistant, making them capable of withstanding a wildfire without suffering any damage? Time and again, we see that the situation remains exactly as it was in 2018. If a fire were to break out over Monchique again tomorrow, more than 100 houses would surely fall prey to the flames, just as they did in 2018, 2003 and 1991. Nothing has changed for the better. The fire enters the houses (whose roof trusses are built of timber) through the roof. Doors, windows and shutters are made of wood or other non-fire-resistant materials. This is an open invitation for any fire to spread. We need to reduce the risk of forest fires in our own homes by using non-combustible materials. Would you like some examples? When it comes to thermal insulation, I always use cork instead of polystyrene. My roof structure is made of reinforced concrete.
Fever in times of climate crises
Viewed against the backdrop of climate change, with summer heatwaves exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, and against the backdrop of the recent forest fires in Spain, France and the rest of southern Europe, isn’t it about time we learned something from our experiences of these fires over the past few decades? Anyone who owns a cistern with a capacity of at least 50m³ or more will at least have enough rainwater to water the garden around the house. All that is needed is guttering. If they so wished, the architects working for the town hall in Monchique could, at any time, require all houses to be fitted with gutters. The rainwater would then flow into the cistern by itself. Anyone who owns a generator would at least have an emergency power supply, as the electricity supply is always the first thing to fail; this is because, in Portugal, the power lines (including the necessary transformer stations) are placed above ground, without any protection, and are thus the first thing to be burned through. Water pumps cannot pump water to the source of the fire if there is no electricity to power them.
Let us now discuss a topic in which the fire service and civil defence both have a role to play. Houses that are not located directly in a village but stand alone in the countryside, in the mountains, or on isolated farmsteads should have a sprinkler system installed, which every homeowner can then operate and control themselves.
It must be installed in such a way that the sprinklers are positioned against the prevailing wind direction and can be used to keep the fire away from the house and its grounds. Of course, nothing is better than ensuring a good upkeep and maintenance of the property. Bushes and other flammable materials should be cut back before the summer begins. Invasive tree species such as acacias and mimosas are overrunning the southern slope of Picota. Politicians have tended to overlook this issue.
In 2026, it is unclear exactly who is responsible for the roadsides. Until now, every year a team equipped with brushcutters have come to trim the metre-high grass. This year, the town hall presumably had no money. So the responsibility lies with the homeowners and landowners to keep their own plots tidy. But what if the land no longer has an owner? After 2018, many landowners fled Monchique in a hurry or have since passed away. There are many plots of land in Monchique where the grass, bushes and weeds are running rampant, providing ideal fuel for a forest fire.
These plots, with their invasive tree species, pose a threat to the general public. What does the town hall propose to do in this case? If a plot of land or a wooded area no longer has an owner, and the undergrowth just keeps growing and growing, what happens then? Instead of addressing these issues and offering solutions, the town hall is promoting “bread and circuses”, just like in ancient Rome. Displayed prominently on its website, the Monchique Town Council is promoting the ‘Noites no Mirante’ – two music concerts on 7 and 8 August. This leaves this journalist speechless, particularly as he points out that music concerts have little journalistic value in themselves. The Monchique Town Council has now informed ECO123 that it will no longer be receiving any information from the council. Will that improve the situation and help to prevent the forest fires?
