Today, the PS called for an urgent hearing in Parliament with Interior Minister Margarida Blasco to clarify “the political leadership of the fight against the great fire in Madeira.”
In the request submitted to Parliament, the PS parliamentary group also asks to hear the President of the Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires, Tiago Oliveira, the President of the National Directorate of Emergencies and Civil Protection, Brigadier General Duarte da Costa, and the Secretary General of the National Union of Civil Protection, José Costa Velho.
The Socialists also want to hear the opinion of the President of the Portuguese Association of Security and Civil Protection Specialists, the President of the Executive Council of the Portuguese Firefighters League, António Nunes, and the Director of the Forest Fire Research Centre, Domingos Xavier Viegas, in the Commission on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
The PS intends to “clarify clearly what has happened with regard to the mobilization of national resources to combat the very serious fires that are continuing in Madeira, namely how coordination has been carried out between the national authorities and the regional government, whether in combat operations or in the adoption of preventive measures.”
“The fires that continue to spread in the region’s mountains cover an area of more than 8,000 hectares, consuming about 14% of the territory’s forest area and putting at risk the ancient Laurissilva forest, a UNESCO natural heritage site, making it the largest rural fire in Portugal in 2024. More than 40 thousand hectares have burned in the last 20 years,” the Socialist parliamentary group reports.
The rural fire on the island of Madeira broke out on August 14 in the mountains of the municipality of Ribeira Brava and gradually spread to the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Ponta do Sol and through Pico Ruivo Santana.
Authorities ordered about 200 people to leave their homes as a precaution and set up community reception centres, but many residents have already returned, with the exception of those in Fajã das Galinhas, in Camara de Lobos.
Fighting the blaze is being made difficult by wind and high temperatures, but no damage to homes or important infrastructure has been reported.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System, the area of burnt areas exceeds 5,002 hectares.
The Judicial Police are investigating the cause of the fire, but the President of the Executive Power of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, said it was arson.