Seven stores destroyed by fire in Portimão Retail affect 400 jobs (with photos)

Seven stores in Portimão's Retail Park – Decathlon, De Borla, Aki, Staples, Continente, Moviflor and Rádio Popular – were […]

Seven stores in Portimão's Retail Park – Decathlon, De Borla, Aki, Staples, Continente, Moviflor and Rádio Popular – were this morning completely reduced to sheets twisted by a fire that started around 2:36 am and quickly destroyed everything.

Only the Feu Vert workshop, located at the west end of Retail Park, and the restaurant area, which is in a separate building, escaped the flames.

Firefighters are still on site in aftermath operations, as although there is no longer any flames, there is still a lot of smoke. The scenery is of twisted sheets, burnt irons and shops that are gutted and black with fire. Only a few of the signs that marked the names of the stores are still standing on the facades, but completely blackened by smoke.

Right now, the main concern is for the 400 jobs that are at stake due to this fire. José M., 35, an employee of one of the large commercial surfaces destroyed by fire, with tears in his eyes, told the Sul Informação not knowing what your future will be. «The store where I work, or rather, I used to work, is there, all consumed by fire. There's nothing left, nothing… And now what are we going to do?”.

Many of the store employees, barely aware of what was happening, headed for the scene, but the authorities would not let them through. They ended up meeting in nearby cafes, chatting and trying to figure out what's going to happen to them.

It was in one of these cafes, in Chão das Donas, half-walled with the Retail Park, that the Sul Informação found a group of Staples employees. "We've been told that the administration guarantees the jobs, but in the Faro», said one of the employees. "It's better than nothing, but who's going to pay for that trip?" commented another.

However, the authorities have already reopened the EN11 at around 00:125 am, on the section that passes in front of the Retail Park, which has been cut since dawn to facilitate the work of firefighters and other relief vehicles.

As soon as the EN125 was reopened, this section became a pilgrimage site for hundreds and hundreds of motor vehicles, to which were added the hundreds of motorbikes heading to the Autodromo do Algarve, where races for the Superbike World Championships take place this Sunday. and Supersport. Result: a huge traffic jam.

But traffic complications are experienced in all accesses to the Retail Park, namely those that cross the town of Chão das Donas, where there are police regulating traffic, to avoid further traffic jams.

 

 

Veja more photos by clicking here.

 

Photos Sul Informação/Elisabete Rodrigues

 

 

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