Terrified university students ran for their lives as raging wildfires reached their Algarve villa with the group saved after setting an early-morning alarm.
The friends - who had saved for the incredible summer trip - told how they all frantically piled into a car to escaped the furious flames closing in on them.
Fires have ripped through Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Turkey and Greece amid the sweltering heatwave.
Millie Farley, 22, told Birmingham Live how things took a dramatic turn in the early hours of Thursday morning
The pals had jetted off for a week in the Portuguese sunshine to celebrate their time at the University of Oxford coming to an end.
Wildfires had been raging about 1-2km from their Airbnb villa, near Quinto Verde, for most of the day and they soon drew closer and closer.
As things got worse, they decided to set an alarm for 3am - a decision that potentially saved their lives.
When the alarm went off, they checked outside and could see a "very small, seemingly insignificant bonfire-like fire " about 100m away.
Millie said: "We decided to stay up and keep an eye on it to make sure that it was nothing to be concerned about.
"After about 20 minutes of anxious waiting, we stood up to head back outside. The image that greeted me when I pulled back the curtains to open our patio door is something that will haunt me for a long time - flames were literally less than 2m from my window, ash was falling into the pool and the sky was lit up in a fiery orange glow.
"It was genuinely terrifying. We screamed to wake everyone up and grabbed our passports as we ran out of the front door to the car. Without hesitating we drove at rapid speeds down the lane, seven of us crammed into a little Fiat Panda."
As they sped off, Millie said they were so worried that the fire would block the path, our only exit to the main road. "Luckily we sped out just in time," she said. "The fire spread rapidly behind us, burning down trees and bushes in its path."
Around two hours later, the friends were told it was safe to return to the villa and collect their things.
"While one of the group decided to call it a day and flew home shortly after the morning's dramatic events, the six remaining friends - pictured above - arranged alternative accommodation in Faro before flying home.
Millie, who studied modern languages, said: "There was no water or electricity as the wires were burnt through, but we could pack our cases and leave.
"The surroundings of the villa were completely blackened and the ground was still smouldering - we could barely breathe through the smoke.
"To be honest, we could have probably stayed in the same villa because it wasn’t physically damaged from the fire and the groundskeeper was going to fix the wires.
"For us it was more the traumatic experience that prevented us from returning, the area is dry and barren - it’s a disaster waiting to happen."
A number of celebrities have also been caught up in the wildfires.
Former Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne tweeted to say he'd been forced to flee his mansion during what he described as a "terrible day in the Algarve".
Rebecca Vardy, is also believed to be holidaying with her children in Portugal. She shared a video of a helicopter carrying water on her Instagram story with the caption "these guys are incredible".
