The fall of a cable from the ‘zipline’ that is being installed between Porto Moniz and Ribeira da Janela left, yesterday afternoon, several places in the latter parish without electricity and caused slight damage to two houses.
During the installation work on the aforementioned recreational means of transport for people, a cable fell, which ended up breaking the eaves of a house and damaging the balcony of another. It also caused a high-voltage cable to burst, leaving some areas of the Ribeira da Janela valley without electricity (Casais de cima, Casais da igreja and Casais de baixo). The technical staff of the Madeira Electricity Company ended up reestablishing the power supply using a generator, but they were still working on repairing the high-voltage cable today.
“Thank God, no one was injured,” said the mayor of Porto Moniz, Emanuel Câmara, who, as the person responsible for civil protection in the municipality, monitored the situation.
The zipline project is the responsibility of the company ‘Ready2Dream Lda’ and was approved about two years ago by the Porto Moniz Council. It should be operational in the next few weeks, but is expected to be delayed, as the promoter has suspended work to investigate what happened.