Press release of PédeXumbo
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On 3 August 2016, during the festival Andanças, occurred a fire on the temporary parking area in which 458 vehicles were damaged or destroyed. Fortunately there were no casualties, but the lives of hundreds of people were affected.
Since the day of the fire, competent entities investigated and analysed the circumstances of the fire, so that the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público) can form an opinion on the incident. Today, on 2 February 2017, their conclusions were released.
The Public Prosecutor of the Local Court of Portalegre proposed filing the case. According to the released information, no evidence was found that the fire was started deliberately or intentionally. No evidence could be gathered to reconstruct concrete circumstances of the fire, nor for any possible negligent liability of anybody.
Source (in Portuguese):
http://comarca-portalegre.ministeriopublico.pt/pagina/festival-andancas-incen...
The association PédeXumbo, organising entity of the festival Andanças, reaffirms the solidarity with all people directly or indirectly harmed by the fire, and the availability to help reducing the inconveniences caused by this incident, within our possibilities. We continue to work together with the people harmed and all involved entities on a creative, joint, broad and collaborative solution. We are available to contribute to and support initiatives in this line of action. We are also willing to participate in the creation of an inter-institutional working group, together with other interested partners, to search for preventive solutions for future cultural events of this kind.
An open letter of the association of PédeXumbo is available under this link (
http://www.andancas.net/2016/pt/). It contains our perspective and a proposal and shared intentions to learn in a conscious and constructive way from this exceptional situation.