Caryn Le Feuvre was evacuated from her home with her three daughters, one of whom is disabled, the night before fires tore through the area leaving her home ‘unrecognisable’.
The former Islander said people were fighting fires on their doorsteps and ‘incredible’ temperatures melted metal and glass in people’s homes.
Dozens of people died as a result of the blazes which spread through the central and northern areas of the country earlier this month.
An appeal was launched on Sunday to raise money to help rebuild the Islander’s home, Quinta Cabeça do Mato at Vila Seca – which contained special equipment for her youngest daughter, Angela, who was born with cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair.
The family hopes to raise £100,000. So far more than £850 has been raised.
Ms Le Feuvre, who was born in Jersey in 1961 and lived in the Island permanently until she moved to Portugal in 1990, said: ‘I was evacuated to the fire station and returned to the farm the next morning. That was when I saw our house on fire and the land burned.’
Talking about the evacuation she said: ‘Unfortunately around 7 pm all the communication lines were cut off, as well as the electric and water. The fire was coming in the sky and the noise and heat were indescribable. I put my 30,000 litre gravity-fed watering system on and decided to leave.
‘I took them [the family] to the fire station and returned to our house but no emergency services were available to come and fight the fire. People were fighting the fires on their doorsteps. I had put an aluminium ladder in to the underground water tank and had decided to go down into the tank but the fire came too fast. I am glad I left because even the ladder melted, and the temperatures in our house were over 1,000°C, having melted glass and metal.’
She added: ‘We are luckier than some, especially those who lost lives. Our dogs and cats are fine and we are so glad to be alive.’
Mrs Le Feuvre is now living in one of the buildings on the farm which survived the fires but said her family are living in ‘precarious conditions.’ She says she regularly visits Jersey as her sister and brother still live here.
The former Islander has since criticised her government’s reaction to the fires. She said: ‘For all the people like us and the Portuguese people who are giving so much to this country, we need some major changes in the government policies on forestation and civil protection.
‘We believe nobody had a list to know who to evacuate. The military was not called in to help when we were faced with such heat and hurricane winds.
‘The government have been having meetings to figure out what went wrong and what needs to be done better.’
The house was on an organic permaculture farm and the family organised a number of events at their home, as well as accommodating overseas volunteers.
Money raised from the online appeal will be used to reconstruct the farm buildings, watering systems, as well as to buy tools and farm equipment needed to maintain the land.
Mrs Le Feuvre said: ‘We have received incredible support both financially and morally. We have had thousands of messages from hundreds of people and we will find time in the future to thank them all personally.’
To donate to the appeal click here
