June saw Portugal's worst forest fires in living history....174 square miles of central Portugal burned and tragically, 64 deaths and people still in hospital. Area of fire damage We were lucky, the fire reached the top of our village then, as we were evacuated, took a turn and moved upwards...we were lucky. People have lost their land, their home, their family, their life. We were very lucky. We ran, we ran for the coast....away from the fire, away from the smoke, away from the fear. But in making this trip we drove along the main road out of town passing the burnt-out cars where people died in their cars, fleeing their homes as the fire moved at over 200 miles an hour, at temperatures which melted glass. I try not to think too much about what that was like for them. The fear of being surrounded and trapped by fire was very real, friends of ours in other locations were already surrounded in their homes. What I'll never, ever forget is the smell of fire, ...