22% of Funchal damaged by fire

The news this week showed that 8% of Madeira suffered fire damage and 22% of Funchal was burnt by fire.

A blog reader, and popular name on the German forums (WAUZIH)  sent me a map he has put together showing which parts of Funchal were affected by fire.

 This shows that most of the tourist areas are unaffected especially hotels, and all tourist attractions are running as normal. Some levada walk are closed and you can check these HERE

WAUZIH has sent me another map of the fire damage on the West of the Island. This covers the areas in Ponta do Sol and Calheta zones.

Calheta / Ponta do Sol

Campanario

Fire Damage.

The Jornal Madeira reports 219 houses were damaged by fire in Madeira.

4 of these houses were in Calheta and the remaining 215 in Funchal.

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Thank you to Richard Turner for sending me this information. 

The fires of recent days sweep through the Jardim Orquídea, on the southern edge of the Botanical Gardens, where a collection of 50,000 fully-grown orchids was destroyed on Tuesday night. The private collection dates back 110 years and had been maintained over four generations of the Pregetter family (Austrian Decent). Jardim Orquídea was considered to be one of the largest private collections in the world, with many of the specimens extinct elsewhere. Only 2000 plants are thought to recoverable and with a normal growing cycle of up to 20 years the future of the gardens remains uncertain.

You can read the "History"  on the link below, and get an idea of what has been lost.

Jardim Orquidea

Richard Turner has set up a Crowd Funding Page, to help get the gardens back to their former glory. 

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The C130 Airfoce Plane has landed back in Madeira to collect the 115 firefighters that came to help during the last few days. 

Photo Jose Freitas 

Fires continue

The fires continue to burn, and the situation has worsened above Sao Roque with the fire gaining strength again. I don't know if the winds are still strong, if they are then there could be many problems during the night. Around 10 homes have been affected by fire now in the Sao Roque area. 

Thoughts with everyone involved and please stay safe. 

The photo below from Sofia Ferreira shows the view from her house in Canhas, Ponta do Sol this evening. 

The airport has also had many problems today with the wind, and has been closed this evening for a while. Thousands of passengers are stuck in the airport inside and outside, and I guess with it being August, hotel space is limited, so they probably will spend the night there.

Rock Falls at Calheta

Thanks to Janice for alerting me to this. 

Rock falls in Calheta.
This evening there was a number of serious rock falls from the cliff at the back of the supermarket Pingo Doce causing damage to car windscreens and roofs parked in the area.
Pingo Doce has suffered damage in the overhead car park with a Jeep trapped under the rubble.
The road has also been closed.
There has also been reports of a child injured, but this fact is unsubstantiated.

Photos from Diario Noticias, and there is also a Video on the Page.

Lobo Marinho suffers damage.

A difficult journey said passengers on the Lobo Marinho this morning as it made its usual trip from Funchal to Porto Santo.

The journey was very bumpy the as the ship docked at the harbour of Porto Santo it hit the hull on the pier causing some damage.

A weather warning is out for strong winds and rough seas, and the ferry does not normally travel in these conditions, so why it decided to this morning is not yet known. 

The Sorry State of Lugar de Baixo

Photos online from Elvio Sousa show the awful state of the "biggest white elephant" on Madeira-

Fire Threatens Homes

This evening a fire in the Sítio do Barreira above Santo Antonio has rekindled and with a change in wind direction, threatens peoples homes.

In the last few minutes the situation has become worse with the wind and moving towards houses, and with reports of some homes already being damaged by fire. fire fights from 4 areas are at the scene along with police controlling the traffic and evacuating residents.

The weather outlook is for this dry heat to continue over the next few days at least , and if the wind picks up more then we could see more fires breaking out.

driving back from Funchal today things seemed settled, with just pockets of smoke here and there through the high land above Funchal.

Fire above Santo Antonio moving towards property with the wind.

UPDATE

This morning the situation is much calmer in Sitia do Barreira, firefighters are still at the scene, but the fire is more under control now.

Madeira will remain on yellow alert for high temperatures until Wednesday evening-

The fires at Monte the other night made the BBC news.