Leiria Pine Forest fire

“Now I see fire ... and I start to tremble. We live with the consequences of what happened—the people we lost—every day.” —Filipa Rodrigues, former Portuguese firefighter (bombeira) "The Portuguese will remember 2017 for decades to come: the same amount of time it will take for the country to see green return to its lands. In just 24 hours, the Leiria Pine Forest (Pinhal de Leiria) or King’s Pine Forest (Pinhal do Rei), considered Portugal’s largest woodland, was burned almost completely. Little more than 1,500 hectares remain, out of a total of 11 thousand. While the pine trees were burning, 700 years of history went up in flames, and so did the future: between January and October, the country lost 418 thousand hectares of woodlands."