Portuguese forest fire kills 62, most of them in their cars.

Murrisk

This is horrific. The people were somehow caught in their cars whilst fleeing. They probably thought they were safe at that point. It must have been very fast-moving. Apparently it was started by a thunderstorm.

Has anyone here ever witnessed or experienced a large forest fire? I always find it hard to imagine what the conditions would be like on the ground.

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2017/0618/883587-portugal-fires/

biko

A terrible terrible way to die.


I was reminded of this video (afaik no-one dies)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or7tWjWI0ZA

The_Valeyard

Absolutely horrible, a wall of fire just engulfed the road causing panic and confusion.


RIP

suicide_circus

Desperate stuff, can only hope the smoke got some of them first. RIP

Hector Savage

This is more frightening to me than the London fire - don't get me wrong, all deaths are just as tragic, but I have this false feeling that one would be completely safe from fire in an outdoor space.

And being caught by flames in a car - jessus
horrible

RIP

Auldloon

This has been playing on my mind all night. Anyone know how these poor people got trapped?
It's beyond awful.

Maximus Alexander

biko wrote: »

A terrible terrible way to die.


I was reminded of this video (afaik no-one dies)

That car sounds f*cking awesome.

wes

Saw this on the news yesterday. Poor people. The whole thing look horrific.

The Backwards Man

Auldloon wrote: »

This has been playing on my mind all night. Anyone know how these poor people got trapped?
It's beyond awful.

People don't realise a wildfire can travel really fast, faster than a horse can run, and can change direction just as fast. If you don't react until you see it on the horizon, it may already be too late

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Hector Savage wrote: »

This is more frightening to me than the London fire - don't get me wrong, all deaths are just as tragic, but I have this false feeling that one would be completely safe from fire in an outdoor space.

And being caught by flames in a car - jessus
horrible

RIP

Don't want to pick on your post. But I think being burnt alive doesn't need a context to make it more or less frightening.

Wanderer78

Scary stuff, rip

seamus

The Backwards Man wrote: »

People don't realise a wildfire can travel really fast, faster than a horse can run, and can change direction just as fast. If you don't react until you see it on the horizon, it may already be too late

They travel fast and they burn insanely hot.

I remember reading about a guy in Australia who spotted a bushfire on the horizon. He had about enough time to grab himself and his dogs and dive into a ditch on his land and cover themselves with some big metal thing, like a half-barrel or a water trough or something.

The fire had covered the few kilometres to his farm in about 60 seconds and the whole thing was over and done within 5-10 seconds. But when they crept out, everything was gone. House, animals, vehicles, everything absolutely charred by the insane heat of the fire.

The video above of the guy driving through a forest fire is driving through the remain of it after the main front has already passed through. They don't always slowly spread like we're used to seeing fires spread. They sometimes flow across the landscape like a tidal wave.

The Backwards Man

The Backwards Man wrote: »

People don't realise a wildfire can travel really fast, faster than a horse can run, and can change direction just as fast. If you don't react until you see it on the horizon, it may already be too late

A lot of people don't realise how different things can be outside their sphere of experience. We have deliberate gorse fires which spread after a few weeks of dry weather but it's completely different in places that have gone months or years without any proper rain. It spreads like if you start a fire in a handful of properly dry straw only on a much bigger scale. Terrifying stuff.

Murrisk

suicide_circus wrote: »

Desperate stuff, can only hope the smoke got some of them first. RIP

I really hope so but I've an awful feeling that the cars might have been engulfed in flames very quickly. I hope smoke got to them first.

It's upsetting because I think we all feel a bit invincible in our cars. Once they got in, they were probably thinking along the lines of "Phew, now to just speed away from danger!" If this was in a mountainous region, the road network might not be all that extensive and there might have been limited choice of which way to drive for some.

Auldloon

Max speed of about 20kph apparently. :eek:
http://sciencing.com/fast-can-forest-fires-spread-23730.html

CeilingFly

The biggest issue with this fire was the dense smoke that meant water carrying planes / helicopters could not operate and obviously on the ground visibility was near zero meaning cars could not drive away.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40324006

"There was fire at the top of the pine trees and they were falling over the cars. The fire was coming from all sides. The cars crashed into each other trying to escape."