70 people have received medical attention since Wednesday due to fires in Madeira

Seventy people have received medical treatment for the fires that have continued to rage since Wednesday on the western and northern coasts of Madeira, the regional secretary of health and civil protection said this Saturday, adding that 125 operatives are now fighting four fires.

At a press conference at the Regional Civil Protection Service in Funchal at 15:30 to present the situation, Pedro Ramos said that fires continue in the municipalities of Calheta (western zone) and Porto Moniz (north coast), the most affected since Wednesday, as well in the municipalities of Ribeira Brava and Camara de Lobos, also in the western zone, which broke out this evening.

The government official also updated the number of people receiving medical treatment in connection with the fires, which increased from 66 at 19:00 on Friday to 70 at 12:00 this Saturday, of whom five were sent to the Dr. Nelio Mendonça Hospital in Funchal.

According to Pedro Ramos, in the municipality of Calheta, six houses were damaged by fire, two of which were empty, and four were inhabited, each with one person, two of whom are now homeless.

“At the power grid level, 360 out of 400 families were affected. [na Calheta e no Porto Moniz] Power has already been restored and the remaining 40 are expected to resolve the situation later today,” a government official said, adding that the communication network will also remain operational until the end of today in the parish of Fajan da Ovelha in Calheta.

The most complex fire is the one raging on two fronts, in Ribeira Brava and Camara de Lobos, involving 10 vehicles and 64 first responders, although it is in forested areas and does not threaten homes.

Porto Moniz has 28 first responders and ten vehicles, while Calheta has 59 firefighters and 14 vehicles.

Air transport continues to operate, having already flown 30 hours over the past four days.

Authorities have not yet calculated the total area burned since Wednesday, but the municipality of Calheta, the autonomous region’s largest, estimates the area to be 70 square kilometers, about 50% of the territory.

Secretary of State Pedro Ramos announced this Saturday an increase in the number of military personnel participating in surveillance operations, which now stands at 30, and warned the population to “stay alert” as temperatures in the archipelago will remain very high over the next 48 hours , with the wind. The intensity is expected to increase on Sunday.

The suspect in the arson of the forest in the municipality of Calheta, arrested by the judicial police at the scene of the crime on Friday, was heard today in court and placed in preventive detention, a measure of compulsion replaced by hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital.

The Madeira government declared a fire emergency on Thursday and activated the Regional Civil Protection Emergency Plan for five days until Monday.

The Madeira archipelago has been under an orange weather warning since last week due to persistent high temperatures exceeding 30 degrees per day. The situation will last until 23:00 Sunday.