Fire stations throughout country mark occasion sounding sirens
At 4pm this afternoon fire stations throughout the country sounded their sirens to mark the funeral of the three firefighters – two women and one man – who died in a blaze in the borough of Tábua on Tuesday, in the middle of Portugal’s ‘firefighting nightmare’.
Every dignitary one could imagine was among the sea of mourners lamenting this unbelievable tragedy that snatched the lives of three people with so much left to live for.
As their village firefighter’s association president Vítor Melo said yesterday, it is always the best people who die young: Susana Carvalho, 44 – the mother of a teenage son, with years of experience; Paulo Santos, 38 – “an exemplary operational”, and Sónia Melo, 36 – “the sweetest person” who was planning her wedding for next year.
All three were buried together this afternoon in the cemetery alongside the Vila de Nova de Oliveirinha fire station where they served.
Lusa’s report this afternoon described “the sound of pain” that marked the moment of farewell in a ceremony presided over by the Bishop of Coimbra, Virgílio do Nascimento Antunes, as well as the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, Rui Valério – and attended by ministers, MPs, Civil Protection/ GNR top brass, the President of the Republic and the prime minister, along with a host of others – many of them still in shock, and exhausted, after the week’s nightmare of firefighting.
The fires that raged across the north and central areas have finally been brought under control – albeit dampening down efforts are still ongoing; arsonists have been caught, but today was all about the three who died trying to save a community from catastrophe.
According to Lusa, there were so many people attending the funerals that the cemetery didn’t have space for them: a large screen had to be erected outside, so that people could follow the service.
Local mayor Ricardo Cruz has already said he will be proposing awarding a medal for merit and altruism to the fallen three, while former president of the firefighters’ league, Jaime Marta Soares told journalists as he arrived that there needs to be a ‘regime pact on fire prevention’ to stop what he believes has been a “lack of action by successive governments” to look for solutions to the perennial summer conflagrations that, every now and then, cause such terrible loss of life.
After years in which almost no-one has died in forest fires, this year claimed the lives of seven, and saw over 160 injured, some seriously.
At latest count, last week’s blazes have burnt over 135,000 hectares. Dozens of people have ‘lost everything’: homes/ businesses/ crops/ tree production/ beehives – the costs are nowhere near being totted up. But today was not about any of that. The time for those stories will come. Today was reserved for a poignant farewell to three firefighters who set out on a mission to do their best, and ended up paying the ultimate price. ND
