A total of 22 fire engines were called out on Monday night when a fire broke out in pre-fabricated homes on a social housing estate near Ria Formosa in Faro.
The fire is believed to have been caused by the high number of gas bottles in shanty-style houses which rapidly spread and destroyed three homes.
Rapid response from fire and rescue services “prevented the fire from reaching neighbouring houses” but a total of nine people from three different families were consequently left homeless. No casualties were reported.
Faro Mayor Rogério Bacalhau has said Faro’s social services will now be trying to “find a solution”, while the families are all being cared for by relatives on the Bairro da Horta estate – a complex that sprang up in the wake of the April 25 Revolution and which was meant to be temporary, but has instead become permanent despite its “lack of conditions”.
By midnight, the blaze had been brought under control. Meantime, Rogério Bacalhau’s administration has confirmed that it will have a plan for the rehousing of all the families on the estate “before the end of the current mandate”.
