It only takes one idiot to start a fire that has consumed many hectares near Fóia and along the hills above Monchique.
On Saturday afternoon (September 3rd) one such idiot was arrested but the fire he had started spread rapidly and soon was out of control helped by temperatures nudging 40, low humidity and wind - this has been the Algarve's worst fire of the year.
On Saturday there also were fires in Port de Lagos (Portimão), and in Caldas de Monchique but the one started deliberately in Foia was the most severe, sweeping through eucalyptus forests and scrubland.
There has been a huge, expensive and exhausting operation involving eight air support units, and hundreds of ground based firefighters, 120 vehicles and ground clearing machinery to help access difficult and remote forested areas.
Remarkably, no reports of death or injury have been received and only a couple of elderly people have had to be evacuated as the flames headed towards Casais and Marmalete.
The fire’s active front was moving south on Sunday afternoon having burned out at Fóia. The fire was heading down a valley where there is a lot of scattered housing so people and property are being protected by fire crews.
Firemen from units across the Algarve were joined by colleagues from Beja, Évora and Lisbon plus the help of three Army platoons.
Sunday morning saw the aeroplanes back on duty, dropping water in support of ground crews and the fire was out by late afternoon with crews standing by for any resurgence.
The fire at Caldas de Monchique had been put out on Saturday evening, as was the one at Port de Lagos to the north of Portimão.
As Portugal sweltered in a late summer heat-wave, a total of 33 fires were recorded across the country on Sunday, many of them deliberately set. The Monchique blaze easily was the most dramatic and widespread.
The GNR reported that on Saturday, September 3, a 49-years-old man from Loulé was arrested in Fóia, Monchique for the crime of deliberately setting a fire.
The occurrence of several fires during Saturday, especially in Portimão and Monchique, had led to a strengthening of GNR forest patrols, one of which spotted the man and nabbed him in an isolated area of the Monchique mountains, near the Alto da Foia.
The detainee has since been handed over to the Judicial Police and can expect no mercy from the courts.
