The 720-meter cross-border zipline will take place on 11 May 2024 at 11:30am, where those brave enough will go between Sanlúcar de Guadiana and Alcoutim, in support of the volunteer firefighters who keep us safe all year round.

The idea was sparked by Alerta’s founder, Debby Burton and Jan Felton who runs Women of Loulé. Jan kindly shared that Women of Loulé “is a private Facebook group with over 1500 members, I took over running the page last Summer and it has been running for 3 years. It is a community group for women in the Algarve who need support or advice and we often meet for activities and get involved in charity fundraisers.”

The duo have known each other for two years, with Jan sharing “I knew Debby and all the things she was doing around Alerta, and every time we have met I have heard all about the struggle that goes on and the fact that volunteer firefighters are not paid. It was from there that we decided to organise the fundraiser.”

Debby shared “Anyone in Portugal or Spain can join us on the 11 May. We have also sorted with the zipline company, Limite Zero, that if people can’t make it on the day, they can still donate the money as long as they say it is for the zipline challenge. So far it has just gone over 40 people!”

The price of each ticket in order to participate is 25 euros, with Limite Zero donating five euros per ticket bought to the Forest Fire Alert Association which will support the volunteer firefighters directly. “We are asking for a minimum sponsorship donation of 25 euros.”

If you would like to zipline to support the volunteer firefighters please contact Jan Felton at info@womenofloule.com.

Support Alerta

Debby went on to explain why your support is so crucial, “In the Algarve, there are two sorts of stations, municipal stations and volunteer stations. So your municipal stations are 100% funded so Alerta buys uniforms, we don’t buy them for those stations because they do not need us but we will give donations of water and everything else that is needed to both stations.”

“Most of the country’s stations are volunteers but in the Algarve, they have 50 to 70% volunteers and the rest are full-timers. Full-timers earn a basic salary, and there is always a deficit of uniforms so at the end of each year if we have any cash left we replace forest fire uniforms.” Each uniform costs about 500 euros each, so this year we are spending over 40,000 euros and we are supplying 18 stations in both the Algarve and the lower Alentejo.”

Most importantly, asides from getting involved in the fundraiser and donating, you can also support volunteer firefighters by becoming a member of your local fire station, which costs between 30 and 50 euros a year.

The Forest Fire Alert Association is dedicated to providing information about firefighters' activities and publishing the development of fires, in order to “help the community and services”.

For more information on Alerta, please visit www.algarvefire.info or visit their Facebook page Associação para Alerta de Incendio Florestal – Forest Fire Alert Association.

For donations and volunteering please visit www.algarvefire.info where you can donate directly on the webpage and also contact Debby Burton.