Shocked into action in 2017 by a wildfire that killed 66 people, Portugal's government took steps to minimise the risk of a similar tragedy occurring again.
But five years on, blazes are again ravaging a countryside that, with those fire prevention measures poorly enforced in forests and plantations reduced to tinderboxes by a searing heatwave and an unprecedented drought, is as exposed as ever to the risk of uncontrolled destruction.
Portugal, and neighbouring Spain, are also particularly vulnerable to the increasingly hot and dry conditions - blamed on global warming by scientists - that are making wildfires more frequent and dangerous.An unprecedented expansion of the "Azores high" Atlantic high pressure system driven by climate change has left the Iberian peninsula at its driest in 1,200 years, and winter rainfall is expected to drop further, a study in the Nature Geoscience journal showed this month.
The dams are often used by waterbomber aircraft but reduced capacity means there are less supplies to put out fires, Duarte said.Environmental groups say utilities are using more water than necessary and, in response, the government has ordered some dams to prioritise human water consumption over companies' needs."It can't be just about profit," Duarte said, also pointing a finger at intensive farming.
"We can't give orders...," said the 38-year-old. "We have to deal with what comes next but it doesn't seem to be getting better."