At 2 a.m. on the night of August 17 to 18, Helena Moreira managed to get past the GNR blockade to check on Queijaria do Paul after seeing social media posts claiming it had been burned in a fire that began days earlier in Arganil.
The manager of this small artisanal cheese dairy discovered that 100 hectares of pasture around the farm had been burned, and a warehouse with over a thousand hay bales ready for winter was on fire, with a tractor inside.
“It looked like a volcano,” she recalls.
In this cheese dairy located in the municipality of Covilhã, near the village of Paul, losses amount to 50,000 to 60,000 euros. Nonetheless, the more than 400 sheep and the cheese dairy’s facilities were saved, where the employees insisted on continuing to work the next day, even with everything burned around them.
“We came right away. The GNR didn’t want to let us pass, but we had to come,” says one of the cheesemakers while preparing cheese.
Another employee emphasizes, “It’s a struggle, but it has to be.”
Helena Moreira explains that the losses related to feeding the sheep are compounded: “We have to buy feed immediately and also replace what we had for the winter that burned.”
With seven workers, the cheese dairy had been planning to expand, but due to the fire, they might have to consider reducing the herd, she admits.
“The agricultural conditions are not easy. Since COVID-19, things have been difficult, and now this situation further strains the financial aspect,” says the manager of one of the few cheese farms in the area.
“Living in the Interior requires a great capacity for resilience and overcoming challenges. And then when these calamities occur, we end up feeling isolated,” she lamented.
In Erada, Alexandre Rodrigues successfully minimized the potential impacts of the flames passing through his farm, which is accessible by a dirt road from the parish headquarters.
The 47-year-old farmer, with a herd of 250 goats, managed to avoid the worst, along with his parents, brother, wife, and two firefighter teams.
“As soon as we knew the fire was passing through Teixeira [in Seia], we were prepared because when you see your neighbor’s beard on fire, you hurry,” he says.
Armed with water tanks and buckets, they sought to prevent sparks from entering the pavilion housing the goats and the nearby stored hay bales.
He lost some machinery and hay bales outside the pavilions, but given the farm’s location, surrounded by pine forests and away from any locality, it could have been worse.
“We were lucky to have two firefighting teams,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, climbing towards Serra da Estrela, in the area of Unhais da Serra, no firefighters were available to combat the flames at Alexandre Galvão’s farm, located in a high, difficult-to-access spot with a view of the Torre.
The young shepherd, along with his parents and brother, defended the farm with shovels, hoes, and broom heather. The fire ended up skirting the area, where the work of his approximately 300 mountain goats might have made a difference.
Here as well, there is lamentation over the pasture lost across the entire mountain range, with goats that used to graze all the way to the Torre.
Now, he will need to purchase hay bales he hadn’t planned to buy and fears that the pregnant goats – approximately 120 – might miscarry due to the stress caused by the fire, the ashes, and dust in the air, and the lack of pasture.
In a profession that is not easy, Alexandre counts on one hand the producers he knows in the area, and for grazing in the mountains, it’s just him, his father, and another man.
“More herds are needed,” he argues, believing that ten or twelve shepherds would make a difference in that mountain region.
Furthermore, he criticizes the policy of fighting all fires, even those that occur during the winter.
“In winter, you burn to prevent burning in summer. But now they think all fire is bad fire,” he states.
Alexandre’s father, returning from herding in the few unscorched lands, joins the conversation, inviting politicians to walk with him to see “what this life is like.”
“They eat out, dine out, and sleep out,” he jokes, saying it’s better to take the situation “with a laugh.” Amidst the potential disaster, they escaped – along with the goats, dogs, chickens, and cats that break the silence of the mountains.
