LISBON, Sept 19 (Askume) – Portuguese police this week arrested 14 arson suspects who may have sparked dozens of deadly wildfires across the country as climate change and declining rural populations have increased the risk of fires.
The fire has killed at least seven people and destroyed homes, factories and thousands of hectares of forest.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro promised tough “repressive action” against such crimes “committed in the name of special interests” but did not provide further details.
Professor Salvador Pinho Ferreira de Almeida, a civil protection expert at the University of Lusofuna, told Askume there were strong indications of criminal activity because many of the fires “happened at night, so many fires were seen, and it is a strange” location “scattered in many places”.
Researcher and criminologist André Inácio said arson could be triggered by “deteriorating climatic conditions, dry forests and strong winds”, even if the first incident was accidental.
“The new fire that broke out early in the morning did not start on its own. The prime minister did us a favour by telling us what the fire was,” he said. Buying burnt wood or land at a low price could also be a deliberate act of arson, he said, citing potential financial gain.
Other causes include mental health issues.
A case study titled “Portugal forest fires 2017” shows that about 36% of the forest fires that killed 45 people in October 2017 were caused by arson, caused by farmers accidentally clearing land, which is equivalent to the use of fire.
A 2019 paper by Portuguese researchers Jessica Rolho and Cristina Soeiro studied the behaviour of 260 arsonists, 90% of whom were men, and found that anger and a desire for revenge motivated most people to set fires, particularly with the proportion of women being around 27%.
Experts also point out that depopulation in rural areas has led to excessive vegetation growth, which is covering stone walls that were previously used as firewalls. They said the government needs to resume cleanup efforts that began after deadly fires in 2017.
“Poor landscape management has led to this explosive situation,” said Lindon Pronto, a fire management expert at the European Forest Research Institute in Germany. He added that massive investments in fire resilience will not solve the problem.
