# Fire risk complaint update



## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

We're still working on our website that will help people force owners of offending/illegal woodland to cut & clean their land to the legal fire band limits & I'm glad to say it's nearing completion. 

As part of that, I submitted our own complaint to the Camara & GNR about a week ago & am glad to saw some fairly some action. 

Last week, there were people cutting trees in a variety of the small blocks behind our house & today, we had a visit from the GNR who took extensive notes & umpteen pictures of the offending land. & they went on to tell us lots of things we already knew & explained what will happen in coming months which in short is they'll try to find the (multiple) owners of the land & give them notice to cut & clear & issue fines if they don't cut & clean & if they can't trace the owners they'll inform the Camara who will then step in & do it. 

One thing they did say was that we're only entitled to a fire band of 50m & I believe it should be 100m (because as I see it, we fit the criteria of designated village of a set number of houses with 2 buildings within 50m of each other) plus an additional percentage because of the upward incline of the terrain towards our house so after debating that, I said I wasn't going to change the complaint & we'll let the Mayor decide which is right & I'll live in hope meanwhile. 

So now, we sit & wait to see what happens!


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## JohnBoy (Oct 25, 2009)

Thanks for the update TM.

A date was given by which all cleaning had to be completed but, as the date approached, the câmaras went to the government asking for an extension, claiming they had not had sufficient time to complete the work. They have now been given until 31 May.

Certainly, around here, there are some people taking notice, but none appear to understand the rules as you have previously explained them. The main problem seems to be that there are taking the measurements to the base of the tree, rather than the edge of the canopy. It's a start I suppose, but we have a long way to go round here and I think that 31 May date is over optimistic.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

JohnBoy said:


> Thanks for the update TM.
> 
> A date was given by which all cleaning had to be completed but, as the date approached, the câmaras went to the government asking for an extension, claiming they had not had sufficient time to complete the work. They have now been given until 31 May.
> 
> Certainly, around here, there are some people taking notice, but none appear to understand the rules as you have previously explained them. The main problem seems to be that there are taking the measurements to the base of the tree, rather than the edge of the canopy. It's a start I suppose, but we have a long way to go round here and I think that 31 May date is over optimistic.


I don't think they should have given the extension because they've had since July last year to get it done but the Govt seem to have stuffed it up from day 1 by issuing so much misinformation but FWIW, we also address all of those issues on the site.


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## JohnBoy (Oct 25, 2009)

I spoke to someone today who lives in a town outside of Coimbra. She said that all the private land in the area was cleaned by the first date set. However, none of the land owned by either the câmara or government had been touched. What chance for 31 July I wonder.

I also heard today that in the case of any land that has not been cleaned, the and where the owners cannot be traced, that land will be handed over to the government. Who will then do sweet nothing, like the rest of their land no doubt.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

It's certainly going to be interesting to see what happens in every possible way. 

The 2 GNR had obviously been told what to say & it was equally obvious they didn't know the criteria to define the difference between 50m & 100m firebands let alone that an upward incline in the terrain towards the complainants buildings allowed for an extension to that fireband.


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

A severe case of "don`t do what I do....do what I SAY"


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

I'll settle for 50m but will push for around 140m & try for 100m or so. 

It'll be an interesting trial run to see what happens.


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## JohnBoy (Oct 25, 2009)

travelling-man said:


> I'll settle for 50m but will push for around 140m & try for 100m or so.
> 
> It'll be an interesting trial run to see what happens.



Good luck TM.


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