The Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecution Service has called for the conviction of seven people accused of the crime of guilty fire in the vulture nest, as the Presidente George Helal Training Center, which belongs to Flamengo, is known.
The request, released on Monday (12), was made by the Prosecutor’s Office linked to the 36th Criminal Court of the capital.
The fire, on February 8, 2019, caused the death of ten teenagers and caused bodily injuries in three others. All were young athletes of the club.
According to the prosecutor, 40 witnesses were heard in the long criminal instruction, which lasted four years since the case was reported to the court in January 2021.
“The Public Prosecution Service of Rio de Janeiro understood that the probationary set of prosecution fully proves the criminal liability of the accused,” says the institution’s statement.
The accused are people who held positions with interference with the CT, were responsible for containers designed to houses the adolescents and also for the maintenance of air conditioners.
Eleven people were even reported to court, but complaints against two two accused were rejected because they were not linked to the fact; Another was summarily acquitted that his actions did not contribute to the crime and a quarter, former Flamengo President Eduardo Bandeira de Mello, reached the age provided for in the Penal Code that would give the right to reduce his sentence, which resulted in the prescription of the case.
For the prosecutor, the tragedy could have been avoided. The criminal proceedings points out that the CT worked without permit due to the absence of a certificate of approval issued by the Fire Department. The site, according to the prosecution, had already been banned and charged several times.
Electrical irregularities and lack of preventive maintenance on air conditioners are some of the failures pointed out by the investigation. The fire, according to the agency, began due to short circuit inside one of the devices.
In addition, the containers that worked as accommodation had a bedroom window, sliding doors that stacked during the fire, and a single decentralized and distant exit door from room 1, where the ten young people died. All of this made it difficult to escape teenagers.
There was no fire fighting system and existed inside the steel plates without antholhamas treatment. This material, of high inflammability, caused the rapid development of the fire, as the technical expertise showed.
At the end of the process, the accused are subject to detention penalties, from 1 year and 4 months to 4 years, with increased sentence from one sixth to half.
