A damning report blaming the deaths of seven firefighters in last summer’s tragic forest fires on “human error” and poor organisation among fire crews has inflamed civil protection services and opened a Pandora’s Box of inconvenient questions.
The report, elaborated by investigator Xavier Viegas and submitted to the Ministry of Internal Administration, set news channels buzzing at the weekend – with the most crucial findings detailed as: “Violation of basic rules of safety, errors in manoeuvre, poor positioning on the ground, and errors in the approach to determining the scenario of the fire.”
Radio station Antena 1 reported that firemen had been found to have “neglected” the right way to act in seven out of the eight cases where crew members lost their lives, and had “forgotten” the 10 golden rules of safety that they are made to “repeat so often”.
Antena 1 added that Portugal’s civil protection authority ANPC has since met with fire chiefs at the stations affected by the deaths – the highest number in the last eight years – and rejected any responsibility for them, blaming them instead on the “execution of duties”. It’s an announcement that has outraged firefighters who lost colleagues in last year’s conflagrations.
“So who gave the orders to firemen to be in the wrong places at the wrong time?” they are asking, says the radio station. These will be the inconvenient questions now up for discussion.
The president of the Portuguese League of Firemen, Jaime Soares, said he felt “hurt” and was “angry” that the report was made public even before a meeting was held with the “people in question” (the firemen) so data could be analysed and reflected upon.
Xavier Viegas’ report is just one of a number that have been commissioned as a result of the fire devastation and human tragedies that played out last summer.
