Causes of blaze initially given as “electric car catching fire”
The estimated value of compensation due to settle the damage to vehicles affected by the August fire in Prior Velho, Loures, amounts to more than €3.6 million, the Portuguese Insurers Association has announced.
More than 200 vehicles were destroyed on August 16 in a fire in the Prior Velho industrial area, in a car park next to Lisbon airport owned by a passenger vehicle collection company.
In a statement, the Portuguese Association of Insurers (APS) gave a new update on the damage caused by this fire, saying that the estimated value of the compensation due is more than €3.6 million, having already paid out €2.3 million.
“The average amount paid per vehicle with a total loss was almost €29,000. These figures should already be close to the final figures, so there will be no further updating of the information”, the note states.
According to data released by APS, 232 vehicles affected by this fire had motor insurance and, of these, 154 had fire cover, a percentage “well above the market average”.
“Of the vehicles with fire cover, 117 suffered total loss and 37 suffered partial loss”, APS added.
“The fire, which did not cause personal injury or spread to nearby warehouses, broke out at around 6pm on August 16 – and the Judicial Police are investigating the causes”, writes Lusa (which is odd, as other news sources have stressed the initial reason given for the blaze – an electric car catching fire – was found to have been incorrect, and that the blaze was, in fact, caused by “a short-circuit in a faulty relay in a car with a combustible engine”.)
There are other ‘non-sequiturs’ in this story: Correio da Manhã revealed recently that the company running the car park was not actually licensed as a car park, and that there should not have been any parking on the top deck (which was where the fire took place).
PPlware website concluded yesterday that whatever the licensing situation, “the company, which refutes any responsibilities for the fire, has been at a standstill since August 16”.
