Landslide ‘unrelated to wildfires’; in area “prone to these kind of incidents”
A landslide at one of Madeira’s popular tourist attractions – Levada da Água de Alto, in Faial – has killed “at least one person”, local mayor Dinarte Fernandes has confirmed this afternoon.
Operatives from the Santana Volunteer Fire Brigade and the Machico Municipal Fire Brigade are already at the scene.
Local paper Jornal da Madeira says that the possibility of other “people buried” under is not ruled out.
DN Madeira also states that “there are several seriously injured people”.
According to Santana mayor Dinarte Fernandes, this collapse has “no connection to the fire that has been raging on the island for 11 days”, even though the fire has reached Santana municipality, and Fernandes was out on the hills, monitoring the progress of firefighting when the disaster was called in.
Dinarte Fernandes explained on air to RTP that the area where the landslide occurred is “prone to this type of event”, and that further clarification will be forthcoming.
Público writes that the incident involved a family of three (father, mother and daughter) and happened “at the moment in which the group prepared to set out on a trail” (Madeira being peppered with mountain trails, some of them quite treacherous).
SIC Notícias has a team travelling to the scene, as the island is full of reporters covering the wildfires.
UPDATE: The victims have been described as a family from Spain. The 21-year-old daughter was killed in the rockfall; her parents only slightly injured. According to Observador, this particular route was not one “recommended for tourists, as it is considered a technical ‘levada’ for the transport of water”. This is borne out by the Facebook video link featured above. ND
