Portugal's power company denies blame after wildfires inquiry

LISBON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's primary electricity operator EDP denied all responsibility on Wednesday for causing a devastating forest fire in the Lousa area of Portugal last October.

"Given the information available to EDP Distribution regarding the behavior of its electricity lines on the days the fires occurred in October, we can state unequivocally that no fire was caused by trees falling on our network cables in the Lousa area," the company said in a statement sent to the Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

The denial came after an independent inquiry into the hundreds of wildfires that broke out in Portugal last October delivered its report to parliament on Tuesday.

The report found that 375 fires raged over three days, from Oct. 15 to 17, spanning eight districts and causing 48 fatalities.

Over half of the fires were caused either intentionally (40 percent) or through negligence (20 percent). The other 40 percent involved extinguished fires restarting.

The fire that afflicted Lousa, a town in the center of Portugal, 210 km north of Lisbon, fell into the negligence category.

Citing sources at the Institute of Nature and Forest Conservation (ICNF), the report concluded that the fire at Lousa ignited when a tree fell on a medium-tension electricity line. It added that it was EDP's responsibility to ensure trees were cut back a safe distance from all such cables.

This is the second time that EDP has been accused of causing wildfires through negligence in Portugal in 2017.

An independent commission found EDP similarly responsible for the forest fire that beset the Pedrogao Grande area in June 2017, claiming 66 lives.

The Lousa fire produced no fatalities, but caused 50 million euros worth of damage.

Besides negligence of the kind EDP is accused of, many fires were caused by people burning pastures to renew land for farming. Done in haphazard fashion on a day of blistering temperatures and high winds, these fires soon grew out of control.

The report suggested that the 40 percent of fires that arose from extinguished fires rekindling might be prevented in future by improving fire fighting methods and vigilance services.

However, the 40 percent that were started deliberately represent more of a headache, the actions of arsonists being unpredictable and incomprehensible. Enditem