Portugal Forest Fires Worsen, Fed by Poor Choices and Inaction
Raphael Minder (Cátia Bruno contributed reporting from Lisbon) The New York Times, August 12, 2017
OLEIROS, Portugal — When Portugal's deadliest wildfire killed more than 60 people in June not far from the hamlet where Daniel Muralha lives, it was just the pensioner's latest brush with death.
In 2003, Mr. Muralha, 77, narrowly survived a huge forest fire that engulfed his house. In 2015, a fire destroyed his field. And this July, he watched anxiously as fire burned the trees above his property.
"The fires are getting worse and worse, which means this place is going to become a desert", he said. "I'm too old to move elsewhere, but more people, of course, decide to leave after every fire."