The three Ukrainian tourists who had been trapped since Thursday night in a valley near the mouth of Torrinhas, in the mountains overlooking Fajã dos Cardos, in Curral das Freiras, were rescued late this afternoon, 20 hours after the alert of their disappearance was given.
The foreigners, two men and a woman aged between 25 and 27, are uninjured, drank hot tea upon arrival and will leave in their own car.
As reported by DIÁRIO, the alert regarding the disappearance of the tourists was given at around 9 pm on Thursday, when four members of the mountain rescue team of the Câmara de Lobos Volunteer Firefighters were sent to the scene.
The firefighters managed to locate the foreigners during the night, but given the difficult access area where they were, the landslides they encountered along the way and the bad weather, they were unable to reach the victims who were on an unclassified trail. To get there, they had to follow, albeit partially, a recommended trail that was still closed due to last year’s fires that devastated the parish of Curral.
Early in the morning, the Câmara de Lobos team was reinforced and 10 members of the Madeiran Volunteer Firefighters mountain rescue team also went to the site with two vehicles.
The Regional Civil Protection Service helicopter was also activated at 12:30 pm, but was unable to carry out the rescue due to the rain and fog in the area.
At around 2pm, firefighters managed to reach the tourists, but it took them more than three hours to reach the main road.
Injured Forest Police Officer
Furthermore, one of the forest police officers who accompanied them slipped on a rock and was injured, which is why he had to be taken to the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital in an ambulance from Câmara de Lobos. Also during the night, two firefighters showed signs of hypothermia, on a night when the minimum temperature reached 3.2 ℃ at Pico do Areeiro.