A salamander that wasn’t properly cleaned, inflammable roofing material and negligent interior ‘planning’ are all factors that appear to have led to the tragedy in Tondela on Saturday evening when nine people died, and almost 40 required hospital treatment (click here).
Today, investigations are still ongoing as to how the leisure centre in Vila Nova da Rainha could have turned so quickly into a deadly inferno.
Say witnesses, if it hadn’t been for people breaking windows to relieve the buildup of toxic fumes, there could have been many more deaths and serious injuries.
As it was, a ‘multitude’ stampeded down stairs only to find that the door leading out to the street “wouldn’t open”: the reason, it needed space to open inwards (not outwards, as specified by law for safety purposes) -and the weight of the desperate throng choking on fumes made this impossible.
Fortunately, locals on the outside rigged up a rope pulled by a jeep and ripped the door from its hinges.
Even so, eight of the 40 people piled up on the other side lost their lives.
Today, television stations are reporting that the horror could end up with criminal accusations for ‘homicide through negligence’. It has already been confirmed that the leisure centre had no fire extinguishers.
Inspectors are now going through every step of what happened.
Says tabloid Correio da Manhã, the ‘salamander’ believed to have ‘exploded’ may have been ‘badly maintained’.
An installation expert is quoted as telling the paper that normally the tube taking heat from the salamander reaches temperatures of around 200 degrees. If the tube is dirty, however, it can “start to burn” and reach temperatures of up to 800 degrees. “It is natural that it would start a fire, and even more probable when it is next to inflammable material”, said Ricardo Rodrigues.
Jorges Mendes, a member of the local firefighters association, told reporters that the leisure centre simply was not safe: “the doors opened inwards, there was no smoke extraction system, no emergency lighting and bottles of gas stored inside.
“No one had even checked the premises”, he added.
Meantime, the names of the dead have been published: seven men and one woman – a 52-year-old mother of two who had saved her disabled husband from death in the raging fires that ravaged the area three months ago.
Maria Máxima Silva’s husband “had to be assisted in hospital” after he heard that his wife was among the dead.
In an induced coma because of her injuries is 15-year-old schoolgirl Lara Borges who is reported to have suffered burns to her head and face.
All but nine of the other injured have otherwise left hospital or are close to being discharged.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has been doing the rounds of all the relevant hospitals, saying that the victims he has spoken to are “in good spirits” and looking forward to getting home.
The worst injured are still described as having “reserved prognosis”, with some still “very critical”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
