Auto news on Youtube Apr 2 2018

Hi everyone,

we are today in the village Ferraria de Sao Joao

It's located right at the border between Coimbra and Leiria districts

Even though the area is quite remote, there is people here

spending a lot of energy making it live and preserving in its natural and cultural heritage.

This is one of the 27 schist villages in the area

which is also sadly known because of the fires that took place on summer 2017

Pedro, you were there that day...

Yes, I was here actually exactly at home. My kids were not here fortunately.

They were with their grandparents and Sofia, my wife, was also away doing a night trail

The fire arrived at 1:00 in the morning and stayed around until 5 a.m.

We had fire all around the village, so we were isolated

only two firemen trucks arrived and they ran out of water and they could not be

supplied because we were in the middle of the fire and also our tanks, our reservoir

was also surrounded by flames. So, basically, what we did me and all the

people that stayed in the village, only 40 people live in the village,

basically we helped each other, we were watering the roofs and the walls of the houses.

Trying to control the fire when he came.

He came really close. He came like one meter from our walls.

Because we had trees, eucalyptus and pine trees, just until the houses

There was no protection area and I managed to stop the fire,

and I was lucky enough not to have any tree falling in flames.

After that day, inhabitants of the village had two options:

Leave or React.

You chose, the second option!

You used the existing neighborhood association to structure your action.

Yes

Could you tell us a bit more?

Yes, basically everybody was really scared about the fire. It had a huge impact on everybody.

Even the older people in the village never lived such a thing, such a situation.

We immediately talked to each other in the next day and

we decided well let's try to do something or we need to sell everything

and go away. Because this is going to happen again.

Basically we scheduled a meeting with everybody in the village.

it was a completely private meeting. No politicians, no press, nothing.

and discussed with everybody what to do.

Of course we had some proposals,

and basically, we said that we should have a buffer area, 100 meters at least,

where we control the vegetation, we take out the trees,

or we can have some trees but done in a proper way

with space in between and controlling the

cleaning of the vegetation to prevent ourselves, even if nobody comes in terms

of firemen, we could defend ourselves.

There was a huge discussion

because here the land belongs to a lot of people that are not here,

so everybody was saying now it's impossible.

People have profits from the eucalyptus, so they will not accept that.

So, we said, let's try! Let's see!

Basically what we did was that we identified everybody and asked their permission.

We took out the trees and the roots, we prepared the land,

we cleaned everything and we planted the trees.

And today what remains to be done?

What remains to be done is one of the most important things.

The project is not finished, it's just starting.

and the most important thing is being able to keep these buffer areas,

this Zona de Proteção de Aldeia, the village protection area like we call it, ZPA

maintain it clean and well managed in a way that if another fire arrives,

and it will, this buffer area can block the fire or at least help us to defend ourselves.

And at the same time, it can be a good area like a park

that we can use for walking, for cycling, for bird-watching, deer-watching,

we have a lot of wild deers

to be a better village and it is already being positive

aspect is that people liked how the village turned with this intervention but

this is going to be better and better...

Thank you very much! That's quite impressive!

and I hope that your action will inspire many other.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Thank you for coming in to know our project I hope your trip will be a success!