Portimão: Man arrested for 2 counts of arson
The Portimão Judicial Police (PJ) have identified and arrested a 51 year old man for two alleged arson crimes, one of them being the fire and explosion that took place in the early afternoon of this Wednesday, at a family home in Portimão centre, the other a vehicle.
See the previous article: https://algarvedailynews.com/news/24539-portimao-fire-and-explosion-causes-road-closure
According to the PJ statement, “the suspect, motivated by revenge, as legal action was underway to remove him from the house he as living in, caused a major fire using a direct flame that completely destroyed the house and injured a volunteer firefighter from Portimão”.
An hour later, near one of the beaches in Portimão, “the suspect caused another fire using the same ignition method, this time in a vehicle that was partially destroyed”.
“The investigation, which began immediately after the incident, allowed for the collection of relevant evidence that culminated in the arrest of the suspect, who was located on the same day”.
Another of the five escapees from Vale de Judeus prison is recaptured
The Judicial Police has recaptured another of the five escapees from the Vale de Judeus prison, who made their getaway in September this year, this time Portuguese Fernando Ribeiro Ferreira, in Trás-os-Montes.
Read the original news item HERE: https://algarvedailynews.com/news/24056-convicted-algarve-drug-lord-escapes-prison
In a statement, the PJ explains that the operation had the collaboration of the National Republican Guard ( GNR ) and that Ferreira has an “extensive criminal career”, “especially violent crime”, but also highly organized crime, involving crimes of criminal association, homicide, kidnapping, armed robbery, drug trafficking and possession of a prohibited weapon.
He was first imprisoned in 1980. At the time of his escape, on September 7th, he was serving a 24 year prison sentence, associated with 11 convictions.
Fernando Ribeiro Ferreira was subject to an international arrest warrant issued by the competent judicial authority, which was listed as a red notice at Interpol.
The first escapee to be recaptured was Fábio Loureiro, in early October in Morocco: https://algarvedailynews.com/news/24238-algarve-drug-lord-who-escaped-prison-last-month-is-arrested-in-morocco
The escape from Vale de Judeus on Sept 7th 2024 involved five inmates. Two Portuguese citizens, Fernando Ribeiro Ferreira and Fábio Fernandes Santos Loureiro, a citizen of Georgia, Shergili Farjiani, one from Argentina, Rodolf José Lohrmann, and one from the United Kingdom, Mark Cameron Roscaleer, aged between 33 and 61.
Portimão: fire and explosion causes road closure
A building fire that broke out at around 1:18 pm yesterday afternoon, accompanied by two explosions, caused some of the busiest roads in Portimão city to be closed.
The affected building, a single-family, two-story old house on Rua Dona Maria Luísa suffered a significant level of destruction, despite the rapid arrival of emergency services to the site.
According to information obtained from the commander of the corporation and Municipal Civil Protection, Luís Mestre, this incident “caused a minor injury to one person, who was transported to the Barlavento Hospital, but has since been discharged”.
Streets nearby were closed until around 5:30 pm, causing havoc, especially for one of the busiest in the city, Infante D. Henrique, which runs from the old bridge to the Gil Eanes area.
A total of 36 members of the Portimão Volunteer Firefighters, Civil Protection, PSP and Judicial Police attended the scene.
Meia Praia in Lagos is invaded by 5km bank of algae
Meia Praia in Lagos is the latest beach to be invaded by a huge amount of algae, extending across practically the entire sandbank, which is around 5 kilometres long. (video)
As one of the largest beaches in the Algarve, this impressive sight stretches around 5km along the beach, but is most impressive near the pier and the city of Lagos.
This is a phenomenon that has recently been occurring on several Algarve beaches. The beaches of Armação de Pêra, Vau, Três Irmãos and Praia da Rocha were some of the beaches that were recently taken over by these algae, which, according to experts, originate from Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.
This is a situation that causes inconvenience to bathers, has potential negative effects on fishing and marine fauna and means that local authorities end up spending a lot of money, as the operation of removing so many tons of algae from the sands is neither cheap nor quick.
This was exactly what happened a few weeks ago at Praia da Rocha. Initially, Portimão City Council cleaned a large part of the beach and deposited all the seaweed found near the pier, forming a real mountain, which took several days to be finally removed.
Since this is a phenomenon that results from special conditions caused by the tides, another possibility is to simply hope that, sooner or later, the sea will eventually carry the algae back.
But until that happens, what we see is a very unattractive postcard of the Algarve beaches.
Portugal's 1974 revolution 'Carnation Lady' dies aged 91
Celeste Caeiro, the lady who handed out red carnations to soldiers on their way to ending Portugal’s 40 year right-wing dictatorship, has died aged 91.
Her death comes just 7 months after the 50th anniversary of the nearly bloodless leftist coup. It triggered an outpouring of sorrow and gratitude online and in official statements, with the Portuguese Communist Party remembering "comrade Celeste" as "a working woman with strong convictions", Reuters reports.
The flowers had been meant to celebrate the first anniversary of the Lisbon restaurant where she worked as a cloakroom attendant. But when she arrived for work her boss, who’d been listening to an uncensored private radio station, told her to take them home because he was closing the restaurant. “Something’s going on,” he said. “We don’t want them to go to waste.”
In interviews over the years, Celeste recalled that when a soldier passing by in an infantry column asked her for a cigarette, she gave him a flower instead. He stuck the carnation in the barrel of his gun and soon other soldiers were doing the same, as photographers captured pictures that came to symbolise the almost bloodless coup. The Portuguese Communist Party paid tribute to "comrade Celeste" as "a working woman with strong convictions,” Reuters reports, in English.
"The most beautiful moment of our democracy would not have been as beautiful without Celeste Caeiro. Thank you for everything," journalist Helio Carvalho wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Pollution issue caused by Silves cork factory at last receives a national audience on Portuguese TV
Local residents of the area nearby the Cork Factory in Silves were interviewed by RTP TV channel, for their early evening news broadcast ‘Portugal em Directo’ as they protested outside Silves Camara on Friday 8th November.
The interviews and videos were included in the broadcast, which went live on Tuesday 12th November.
Following years of campaigning against the smoke and noise produced by the factory, this was a great achievement for the residents who have at last reached a national audience. This hopefully will put more pressure on Amorim, who own the factory, to find the necessary solution.
On 08th November 2024, the 13th quarterly meeting was held to follow up and monitor the work to correct environmental anomalies at the Amorim Cork Insulation (ACI) plant in Vale de Lama, Silves.
The meeting was held at Silves Town Hall and was attended by Councillor Maxime Sousa Bispo and representatives of CCDR-Algarve, the Pestana group, the ‘Factory Neighbours’ Residents' Committee and Amorim Cork Insulation (ACI).
Here is the bulletin of the meeting:
We were pleased to have the presence and participation of the Vice-President of CCDR-Algarve, Architect José Pacheco, and the new CEO of Amorim Cork Solutions (ACS), Dr João Pedro Azevedo.
The new CEO of Amorim Cork Solutions (ACS) explained Corticeira Amorim's recent corporate reorganisation, which involves merging the 3 business units - Cork Composite, Cork Flooring and Cork Insulation - into a single business unit, called Amorim Cork Solutions (ACS), as of January 1st 2025.
The meeting was constructive and cooperative, with Dr João Pedro Azevedo revealing that he was fully aware of the current unsustainable situation and that the dates set for the completion of the plans to correct environmental anomalies remained as previously defined in previous meetings.
As such, the future Amorim Cork Solutions (ACS) will complete the work to reduce noise levels by the end of 2024, with the aim of complying with the legal limits defined in the General Noise Regulation; in January and February 2025, Amorim Cork Solutions (ACS) will carry out acoustic measurements and tests to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the measures implemented by the end of this calendar year.
On the other hand, with regard to the work to reduce white smoke and smell, it should be noted that the work on phase 1, corresponding to the installation and operation of the pre-filter, has already been completed since the end of June 2023, although without the desired results, which forced phase 2 to be re-started, referring to the design, installation and operation of the final filter (RTO).
Amorim Cork Insulation (ACI) is currently finalising the commercial negotiations for the purchase and construction of the RTO, with the aim that, from 1 July 2025, there will be no more smoke emitted into the atmosphere, nor any smell.
Finally, with regard to the dust and ash that pollute the properties of the neighbouring population, Amorim Cork Insulation (ACI) will make efforts to implement corrective measures, based on studies that are already being carried out and which will involve relevant decision-making at the start of the next calendar year.
The next monitoring meeting, to be held on 28 February 2025 at 10.30am, should bring news on the state of play of all the procedures for correcting environmental anomalies that are currently underway.
We would all like to thank the permanent municipal executive of Silves Town Council for their support and commitment in carrying out this participatory process, which aims to correct the environmental anomalies of the Corticeira Amorim factory in Vale da Lama, Silves, with the consequent reduction in pollution caused by its operation, and to improve the relationship between Amorim Cork Insulation (ACI) and the neighbouring population, contributing to a more integrated and participatory community in resolving matters of public interest in the environmental field.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/poluicaosilves/
Portugal's efforts at COP29
Portugal has been contributing positively in its own way to the United Nations Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the conference, which started on Monday 11th November and concludes next Friday, has been mired in controversy and a failure so far to reach essential international cooperation.
Portugal came to the summit with a revised and more ambitious Energy and Climate Plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
Now it has its own on-site pavilion where it is hosting 55 presentations and debates over the current 11-day COP period on a number of major issues, including the need for more climate action, present and future energy supplies, resource efficiency, water and biodiversity.
The Portuguese pavilion is also holding joint initiatives with the international community of Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as European institutions.
All of Portugal’s priorities are in line with those of the European Union. The prime focus is on meeting the pledges made in the 2015 COP21 Paris Agreement, to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The latest focus is on insisting that the world’s richest countries and biggest greenhouse gas emitters pay sufficient funds to the poorer countries, who are being critically impacted by global warming, causing desertification, lack of food, drinking water and other essentials. One figure being bandied about is 100 billion dollars or more, per year, but the rich countries are reluctant to pay up for the pain they have been, and still are, causing.
Leading Portugal’s COP29 delegation, Minister of Energy and Environment, Maria da Graca Carvalho, has noted Portugal’s wish to help transform millions paid to former colonies from their national debts into funding climate investment. She has emphasised that “to move forward globally in terms of climate change, it is fundamental that we increase the funding target for climate change, broadening he range of contributors for this. Currently some of the biggest polluters in the world are not doing enough. The European Union has led this effort with funding and clear policies. Now we want to see the other major blocs and nations matching our level of commitment.”
Meanwhile, It is hard to understand what can be achieved at this year’s COP summit, with many leaders absent as global cooperation is vital if we are to greatly lower greenhouse gas emissions, and keep the world’s average surface temperature to no warmer than 1.5C (2.7F) pre-industrial levels.
Written by Len Port
