Albuquerque confirms that the fight against the fire in Madeira was correct and will not make changes to the executive branch.

The President of the Madeiran Government, Miguel Albuquerque, said this Sunday that he would not make changes to the composition of the executive power based on criticism of the fire safety management, and assured that the secretary in charge of civil protection would remain in his position.

“[Demitir] “Pedro Ramos? That was what was needed!” he told reporters, reiterating that the decisions taken to fight the fire, which broke out on August 14 and is being cleared up on Sunday, were “correct”.

Miguel Albuquerque spoke on the sidelines of the ceremonial meeting dedicated to the day of the municipality of San Vicente, on the north coast of the island, where he assured that the regional secretary of health and civil protection will remain in his post.

“The SDP is a minority government, so some political forces were waiting for things to go wrong and bring down the government,” he said, before stressing: “This is not about a fire. This is about the desire of some creatures for power.”

Asked about criticism from party members, Albuquerque said he had never seen them stand in front of a fire.

As for the CDS-PP, the party that signed a parliamentary defense agreement with the PSD and said Sunday that it would propose the creation of an independent commission to assess the management of the firefighting, a government official said there was no problem, but did not specify whether the initiative would receive support from the Social Democrats in parliament.

“No problem, I think you can find out whatever you want,” he said, before adding: “As I said, the decisions taken were decisions based on the experience of Civil Protection, on what the technical experts dictate to attack a fire of this kind, so there is no problem.”

However, Miguel Albuquerque admits the possibility of the regional government falling due to a lack of support in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, where it has 19 deputies out of 47 that make up the semicircle.

“We are a minority government that depends on the support of parliament, this parliamentary support depends on the political support of a group of forces. Therefore, at the moment, one of the political forces, if they refuse our support and submit a vote of no confidence in the government, will fall,” he explained.

However, a government official insists that firefighting and operations management efforts must be judged on their results.

“This is not a political issue, it is a question of protecting people, physical integrity, human lives, housing, public infrastructure and natural heritage, and the results are visible,” he said, reiterating that there was no casualty, no house destroyed, no important public infrastructure damaged.

As for his vacation in Porto Santo at the time of the fire, he considered it all “empty talk,” stressing that he had been monitoring the situation “from the first hour.”

“This is simply an attempt to take advantage of serious and difficult situations that actually cause emotions, people are worried, using this situation to extract political dividends,” he believes.

Miguel Albuquerque thanked the families of the fire-affected areas for their “understanding of the inconvenience,” stressing that their duty was “done.”

“My duty as the Prime Minister is to monitor the situation in such a situation and do everything possible to protect those that are the core values ​​of a civilized society,” he stressed.

On the other hand, the Chief Executive of Madeira announced that this Sunday the fire was under control and that resources were being demobilized: two Canadair aircraft of the Spanish Air Force, provided through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, left the island this afternoon.

The rural fire on the island of Madeira broke out on August 14 in the mountains of the municipality of Ribeira Brava, gradually spreading to the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Ponta do Sol and Santana. This morning, on the 11th day, the regional civil protection service reported that the fire is under control and that operators remain on the ground to deal with the consequences, controlling some hot spots.

Over the past few days, authorities have ordered nearly 200 people to leave their homes as a precaution and have set up community reception centres, but many residents have returned home.

Firefighting efforts were hampered by wind and high temperatures, but there were no reports of injuries or destruction of homes or important public infrastructure, according to the regional government, although some small-scale agricultural production and forested areas were damaged.

According to the European Forest Fire Information System, the area of ​​burnt areas exceeds 5,045 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.