The 22-year-old textile worker had already been reprimanded by the head of his firefighter squad in the town of Lajes, located some 360 kilometresmiles) north of Lisbon, for absenteeism, police added.

Portugal's firefighter force is made up of 10,000 professionals and 30,000 volunteers.

Forests cover roughly one-third of Portugal's surface area and forestry accounts for 11 percent of the nation's exports, but each summer thousands of trees are destroyed by fires.

There were some 25,000 forest or brush fires last year in Portugal which burned almost 120,000 hectares (296,400 acres) of land, according to forest service figures.

Firefighters blame the vast majority of blazes on human action, either through negligence or arson.

TERRA.WIRE