Five years after Portugal’s deadliest wildfire that killed 63 people, the country was due to hear the verdict on Tuesday in the trial of 11 people charged with involuntary manslaughter over the tragedy.
The fires broke out in the central Leiria region during a heatwave in June 2017 and burned for five days, destroying 240 square kilometers (90 sq mi) of pine and eucalyptus-covered hillsides.
Many of the victims died trapped in their cars as they tried to escape the flames, fanned by fierce winds.
A senior firefighter and several local officials are in the dock, alongside workers from a power company and a company responsible for maintaining a road in the Pedrogao Grande district40of victims died.
Another 44 people were injured.
The accused are accused of failing to prevent or fight the fire that swept through rural areas 200 kilometers north of Lisbon.
Several relatives of the victims were in the crowded courtroom in the city of Leiria during Tuesday’s hearing.
Prosecutors have asked for prison terms for five of the accused, which would mean imprisonment for at least five years.
– ‘Calm down the families’ –
“We hope that the verdict will give families peace of mind,” Dina Duarte, president of the victims’ association, told AFP on Monday.
She acknowledged that “no country could have been prepared for a fire of such ferocity,” but said “the entire chain of command should be brought to justice, not just the people on the ground.”
Less than six months after the Pedrogao Grande disaster, a new series of deadly wildfires broke out in the center and north of the country, killing another 45 people.
Augusto Arnaut, who was commander of the Pedrogao Grande Fire Department at the time of the disaster in June, is accused of not taking action early enough to bring the fire under control before it got out of hand.
But the Portuguese Fire Brigade League issued a statement on Monday saying they believed Arnaut was innocent and had done everything he could.
And on Tuesday, around 100 uniformed firefighters formed a silent honor guard for Arnaut outside the court.
Three executives of the road maintenance company Ascendi also face imprisonment.
Prosecutors said they acted irresponsibly by failing to ensure vegetation was cleared from the edges, through which many victims attempted to escape the blaze.
An employee of the electricity distribution network is also facing a severe penalty because the fire was caused by a discharge from a power cable over a tinderbox bush.
– Forests “neglected” –
Several local officials from Pedrogao Grande, Castanheira de Pera and Figueiro dos Vinhos, the three worst-hit districts, are accused of failing to tend the forests along the roads and under power lines.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa accepted that the state bears some responsibility for the fires in June and October 2017 that killed 117 people. The families of the victims received compensation totaling 31 million euros.
The socialist leader promised to overhaul Portugal’s firefighting capabilities, bury power lines and turn the largely volunteer fire departments into professional forces.
But forest engineer Paulo Pimenta de Castro told AFP the situation is now “worse than it was in 2017.”
“Many forested areas are simply neglected (and) there has been no fundamental firefighting reform, only superficial changes,” he said.
He gave the example of a wildfire just last month that destroyed another 240 square kilometers, this time in the protected Serra da Estrela Natural Park, also in central Portugal.
