The fire in Madeira last August in which three people died, several were injured and thousands were evacuated, also racked up material losses of €157 million as homes and hotels were consumed.
This was all due to one 24-year-old man’s culpable negligence that has been proved in court and results in a conviction for setting a forest fire and gross negligence that caused a homicide.
The prosecutor proved that Paulo Gonçalves acted willfully when he set fire to forest less than 100 metres from houses in the upper part of São Roque in Funchal in August 2016 when the temperature was 37°Celcius, the humidity was low and the winds were gusting at up to 70 kmph.
It was accepted that the accused did not act deliberately to cause anyone's death, but that his negligence led to people dying.
When he was arrested on August 10, 2016 he confessed to setting the fire, claiming he was blind drunk at the time.
The fire rapidly spread to areas in central Funchal and left three women burnt to death in their homes.
The defence lawyer, Miguel Nóbrega, said at the end of the trial that he will analyse the ruling and only then will decide whether to appeal the sentence handed to his client, Paulo Gonçalves, or not.
See also: 'Madeira fire: three dead, two injured, one missing, thousands evacuated as fire spreads through Funchal' (August 10, 2016)
