Sara Silva still hopes to rebuild her Vila Pouca childhood home after the 2017 wildfires

Sara Silva’s childhood home in Vila Pouca

When the house Sara Silva inherited from her grandfather in Vila Pouca, Santa Comba Dão, caught fire in October 2017, the blaze destroyed far more than its walls and roof. It turned to ashes her hopes of spending her life in the home where she grew up. She had not yet managed to restore it and was therefore living elsewhere with her husband. The three-bedroom house, described as “a bit old”, was consequently classified as a second home.

Yet, for Sara, who has not entirely abandoned the hope of seeing it rebuilt, it meant much more than that. “I was living elsewhere with my husband, but it was my home. I was renovating it; that was where my belongings were,” she says. “It was my childhood home,” she adds, explaining that her grandfather had given it to her as “a gift” and that she intended to carry out work gradually before moving in. “I had always liked [that idea]; it was where I grew up and spent my childhood.” “I never imagined it would be destroyed by wildfires.”

Support denied after the 2017 wildfires

Little has changed at the property since that fateful day. The CCDRC told her it would not be restored because it was deemed a second home. Of the several local politicians who “promised me help” in trying to resolve the matter, she received “zero”. She also applied to the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation, but “they also said the funds were not enough for every house”. Although both she and her husband are in work - she is employed at a hotel and he works in a factory - their income “is not enough” to complete the work themselves.

“It is unfair. There were people in the same circumstances who received support, and many whose homes did not even burn down and still got help,” she says angrily. “I tried everything; it was a lot of wasted time, and I doubt [they will grant support]. Only if there is a miracle,” she laments.

A home of her own for her daughter

Sara now lives with her parents-in-law and has a four-year-old daughter. It is largely for her daughter that she has not given up on one day returning to live in her childhood home. “That was my dream, especially for my daughter, so that I could give her better conditions and she could have her own little space. We all like to have our own space,” she told JN.