The Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, stressed today that the victims of the Pedrógão Grande fires “will never be forgotten”, and indicated that the memorial has not yet been officially inaugurated because it has not been possible to agree on a date.
“The government is articulating with the intercommunal community [CIM] of the Leiria region and with the victims’ association an opportune date for us to proceed with the inauguration of the memorial,” said Ana Abrunhosa, speaking to Lusa about the work by architect Eduardo Souto Moura that was inaugurated on Thursday, next to national road 236-1, in the Pobrais area, Pedrógão Grande, named in honor of the 115 fatal victims of the 2017 fires.
Although the memorial is open to the public, there has been no inauguration ceremony. According to Ana Abrunhosa, this happened because “it wasn’t possible to reconcile the dates”.
“In the short term, when we have a reconciled date, we will organize an inauguration ceremony, to honor the victims as well,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the government, the minister asked the country to focus on “the essentials”: “We have forgotten no one”.
“Never will the victims of the tragic summer of 2017 be forgotten. The memorial is proof of that. It is only symbolic, but what counts is all the work we have done after 2017 in terms of prevention and fire-fighting, to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2017,” he declared.
The fires that broke out on June 17, 2017 in Pedrógão Grande, and spread to neighboring municipalities, caused the death of 66 people, as well as injuries to 253 others, seven of them serious. The fires destroyed around half a thousand homes and 50 businesses.
Most of the dead were found on National Road (EN) 236-1, which links Castanheira de Pera and Figueiró dos Vinhos, near which a memorial has been erected.
Ana Abrunhosa recalled that “every year on this date, the government participates, by invitation, in the ceremonies that honor the victims of the Pedrógão fires”.
“This year, we were not aware that a ceremony was being held, we had not received an invitation and so no member of the government was present on the ground”, he explained.
Ana Abrunhosa stressed that the government “always went to the field when invited”, recalling that “this year there were no public ceremonies” and recounting that today she had called all the mayors of the municipalities and the president of the Association of Victims of the Pedrógão Grande Fire (AVIPG), “giving them a strong hug and solidarity for this day, which marks the pain of many years and will certainly never pass”.
The Minister stressed that “the most important thing is that the work is done and that the memory of the tragedy is preserved. The government is deeply committed to ensuring that a situation similar to that of summer 2017 does not happen again.”
“Let’s focus on the essentials: on respect for the victims, on respect for the families, and we wanted to stress once again that the victims have not been forgotten and that we will make our presence felt as soon as we have an articulated date,” he reiterated.
In October 2017, just four months after the “Pedrógão tragedy”, other fires in the central region left 49 people dead and around 70 injured, and the total or partial destruction of around 1,500 homes and more than 500 businesses was also recorded.
