As firemen continue to patrol the wasteland that once were the eucalyptus forests and green hillsides of Monchique, the man caught in the act of starting fire in Foia last Saturday has been up before the court in Portimão on Monday afternoon.
The 49-year-old was born in Vila Real de Santo António but resident in Loulé. He works in a bar in Quinta do Lago and was caught red-handed by a GNR patrol as he crouched down with a lighter to ignite a pile of leaves in a hard to access forest area.
The man, whose idenity remains known only to the authorities at this stage, also is suspected of setting the two earlier fires on Saturday – one in Port de Lagos near the landfill site on the road to Monchique and another in Caldas de Monchique.
The suspect had driven to the area and was found to have an accelerant in his car: this is thought to have been used to ignite some of the outbreaks.
In his first statements to the authorities the man said he was a drug addict but that this was under control, suffered from depression and anxiety for which he was receiving psychiatric help and was married with two children.
His defence concentrated on the fact that he was on medication, had taken four times the prescribed dose and does not remember what happened.
Portimão court will determine what happens to him next but has issued an order to keep him in detention until trial.
