Miguel Albuquerque “has shown a total incapacity of understanding of what is public service”
The fire that broke out on Wednesday August 14 was still active on five fronts this morning. Over seven thousand hectares of land have been burnt black; hundreds of people have had to be evacuated – and regional president Miguel Albuquerque has shown what one leader writer described as “a total incapacity of understanding what is public service”.
Returning to Madeira from holiday on the 4th day of the fire, the PSD leader already marked by a judicial process into what has been described as Madeira’s “endemic cronyism”, spent less than 24-hours ‘at the centre of operations’, during which time he appeared to be trying to paint himself as some form of political victim.
The truth is that the ‘victims’ of the management of this wildfire are the many hundreds of residents whose lives have been turned upside down for what is now over a week (not to mention the hordes of summer holidaymakers who imagined a very different experience).
Madeira does not have a huge firefighting force; it has only one firefighting aircraft. Thus, for the first four days, a fire raging out of control over dry land ‘with difficult access’, went ahead ‘as best it could’. By day five, reinforcements had arrived from the mainland and Azores, but by then the fire was a veritable beast.
On Tuesday, the five active fronts in three municipalities were described as “burning with low intensity”.
Speaking to Lusa news agency, president of the Regional Civil Protection Service, António Nunes, said combat is being waged by a total of 74 firefighters and 21 vehicles (a skeleton crew compared to large fires that break out on mainland territory). He stressed most of the fronts are in areas “where it is not possible to enter by foot or mechanical means”. The municipalities affected are Câmara de Lobos, Ribeira Brava and Ponta do Sol.
António Nunes also outlined the difficulties involving combat by air: “We have to wait for the fire to reach a level that allows helicopter intervention, because we cannot fly within these enclosed valleys”, he explained.
Up until now, firefighters have managed to save homes from destruction – and there have been no serious injuries.
The fire did appear to be ‘under control’ around day four/ five – but high winds and reignitions quickly changed the picture.
According to the regional president, this began with an act of arson. This however is not clear. It is potentially more likely that the fire started as a result of a stray ‘rocket’ during a religious celebration in Serra de Água.
PJ police are ‘already investigating’ – while parties in opposition (and even those supporting the minority government) are highly critical of Miguel Albuquerque’s behaviour, not least because he returned to his summer holiday with surprising speed as the fires showed no signs of abating.
“The political pantomime starring Albuquerque would be a summer parody if it weren’t itself a tragedy. A tragedy for Madeira, for Madeirans, for the regional and national PSD, for the general image of politics”, writes Correio da Manhã deputy editorial director general Eduardo Dâmaso in an editorial this morning that paints a damning picture of the political leader who has, up until now, refused to go, even though he is an ‘official suspect’ in a criminal investigation that rocked the archipelago at the start of this turbulent year.
