Small gifts maintain friendships.

Let’s take a moment to look back, shall we? To the year 2018? When the forest fires in Monchique had been mostly extinguished after about ten days and the fire had burned itself out before reaching the first houses in Silves. (Now, in winter, we have time to think about how we can prevent future forest fires. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact ECO123. Write to us at theobald.tiger8550@gmail.com)

After the huge fire, an inventory was made of the damage caused. The largest forest fire in Europe in 2018 destroyed an area of 280 km²: fauna and flora, i.e. animals and forest, as well as houses and infrastructure in six municipalities of the Algarve. The damage was even visible from space, from the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting the Earth. It turned out that only one in ten of the homeowners affected had taken out insurance for their homes. A real disaster. The vast majority of those affected (or should we say victims?) had no insurance. This was also the reason why, in the space of just one day at the end of August 2018, more than 100 new members decided to join the newly-founded self-help association ‘Monchique Alerta’. It promised to take legal action to obtain compensation, which meant that a legal review of the disaster would be sought and a solicitor would consequently be needed in court.

What procedure did the association’s board adopt for preparing its claim? Those affected by the forest fire joined together to form a self-help association. In the wake of the forest fire, 150 members met at the Ceceira restaurant overlooking Monchique and decided to hire a solicitor to represent their interests. Their primary interest was, first of all, to identify those responsible for the forest fire and then file a claim for damages with the district court in Portimão.

While the lawsuit was being prepared, many victims of the forest fire contacted the association to submit their lists of damages. Each member was given one hour to present their case and list in detail what had been damaged or destroyed during the forest fire. A member of the association’s board, the solicitor and the victims met at the agricultural cooperative in Monchique, where they reported their losses and attached supporting documents to their reports. It turned out that only one homeowner had any insurance against fire damage. But why was only one citizen insured against fire damage and not all the others? A question that remains unanswered to this day.

The claim for damages was based on the reports of the GNR, the special report of the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão, and the report of a group of experts led by Professor Domingos Viegas of the University of Coimbra (CEIF: Observatório Técnico Independente), all of which were presented to the Portuguese Parliament in Lisbon, in May 2019. The 82-page report described in detail how the fire had started, who was responsible for it, and how it had spread across the region, despite the efforts of more than 1,500 firefighters from all over the country to regain control of the forest fire. The fact that the fire brigade had been completely without anybody in command for two days, because a replacement had been appointed by the Civil Protection headquarters in Lisbon but did not reach Monchique until two days later, was only one of the reasons for the disaster. From Monday 6 August onwards, the regional head of civil protection in the Algarve was no longer responsible for directing the movements of his firefighters. Instead, the future Secretary of State, Patricia Gaspar, had been made responsible for the command of operations, as from 5 p.m. on Sunday 5 August – at least in theory – but she was not yet in Monchique. She did not reach the command centre until Tuesday afternoon. For two days, there was no leadership provided to the disorganised firefighters who had rushed to Monchique from all over the country to help bring the fire under control. The fire brigades stood with their vehicles at strategically important intersections and waited for orders to extinguish the fire. But these orders did not come because the civil defence command was unmanned between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon. The leadership had ‘deserted’. Meanwhile, the forest fire had reached the cork-oak groves of Monchique and threatened to spread to the village.

This is the only explanation as to why, after the wind had changed direction on Saturday afternoon (4 August, 3 p.m.), becoming north-westerly and picking up speed, the fire that was believed to have been extinguished (Mayor Rui André speaking on the RTP news) reignited and swept across the region with full force. ‘Could the fire still have been stopped?’ some residents of Monchique wondered at the time. Yes, if the fire brigades had fought the forest fire as hard as they could, beginning on the road from Monchique to Nave Redonda. But they allowed the fire to cross the road, and it continued to spread. The forest fire could have been stopped once again when it reached the EN 267 from Monchique to Alferce, but the fire brigades could only stand by and watch as the fire jumped over this hurdle too. The eucalyptus trees lining the road burned like torches, even though by this point the fire services had gathered together over 350 fire engines in Monchique, which could have flooded the road between Monchique and Alferce with water. Nothing of the sort happened, however.

To date, at the beginning of December 2025, there has been no public investigation into the 2018 forest fire. No court has ever charged anyone with responsibility for the fire, let alone ‘convicted’ them. Unbelievable but true: the so-called banana republic of Portugal, with its weak system of justice, has failed completely in this case. The association ‘Monchique Alerta’, which held the national electricity supplier EDP responsible for the fire and brought a lawsuit against the company on the basis of police reports, was thwarted by the judge who took on the case. He did not even open proceedings, stating that the lawsuit had little chance of being successful. That is how the situation has remained to this day. The Monchique town hall also did not consider legal action to be necessary. After the forest fire, the mayor accepted an expensive gift from EDP: a shredder for tree waste worth 50,000 euros. Anyone who receives such gifts is not going to take EDP to court…

There is a method to these machinations. The 48 years of dictatorship from 1926 to 1974 were never legally investigated. After 1974, the weak Portuguese judiciary never imprisoned a torturer from PIDE, even though this secret police force is known to have tortured and murdered many political prisoners. It is customary in Portugal to remain silent and instead point the finger at those who call for justice. Consequently, with this report I am stirring up trouble for those responsible for the 2018 forest fire. After a forest fire in Portugal, there is always another one. No one ever thinks about stopping the madness and asking why it keeps happening. The 2018 forest fire devastated 280 km² of forest and farmland in the Monchique Mountains and emitted 280 times 20,000 tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere: 5,600,000 tonnes of CO₂. And, once again, no one is held responsible for the climate crisis. No limits are imposed on the paper industry, nor is it involved in damage control. Highly flammable eucalyptus forests cover an area of 10,000 km², and Portugal is plastered with monocultures from north to south, more than 10% of the country’s surface area. Are we waiting for the next forest fire?