The Popular Monarchist Party (PPM), addressed a press release where it takes advantage of the difficulties witnessed in the fire, which over the last week devastated the Region, to accuse the Regional Government of “lack of responsibility” when it insists on maintaining the construction of the Curral das Freiras cable car. The party underlines “the difficulties of air resources, due to the suspended cables.
“We give as an example the difficulty that the helicopter encountered and could not operate in the area of Lombada, Ponta do Sol, because of the high voltage cables which forced the helicopter to abort its mission, which subsequently allowed the fires to take hold.
The PPM recalls that this was the only aerial means to operate in the sky of Curral das Freiras and that it avoided an even greater tragedy, just for the simple fact of being able to dump water in specific areas so that the flames did not reach houses and cause even greater damage than already caused.
The PPM thus clarifies and tells the population of Curral das Freiras that if the cable car project goes ahead, it will make it irreversible that any and all aerial means can operate in the fight against fires, as happened in Lombada, Ponta do Sol, and there we will have a real tragedy for the residents of this parish, with more serious consequences than those that recently devastated Curral das Freiras.”
Thus, the PPM corroborates, that the Curral cable car project constitutes “a tangle of cables that makes it impossible for any aerial means to approach to fight the flames and in case of new fires in the parish of Curral das Freiras it will be a catastrophe foretold.”
They have a point, and all disaster management scenarios need to be addressed before any decision about the cable car can be made. In addition, a new land survey needs to be undertaken as the fire may have weakened the existing sub-structure.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
