The mayor of Palma, Antoni Noguera, hopes that the prison gates will be wide open to admit whoever has been responsible for the acts of fire-starting in the city. He looks forward to this person receiving the "maximum sentence" and was speaking after what was one of the worst nights yet.
In the space of two hours on Friday morning, ten rubbish containers and seven vehicles were set ablaze. The first fire was at around 2.30. Rapid police response managed to prevent too much damage when some containers on the calle Manacor were set alight. There were three more incidents: on calle Torre den Bibiloni; calle Jeroni Pou on the corner with the Avenidas, where the damage was extensive; and calle Pare Miquel Mir, where a fire crew had to break the window of a building to check there was no one inside as it was at risk from the street blaze. This all came to an end at just after half four.
As has been stated on various occasions, a special police unit has been established to track down the pyromaniac. Given the lack of results, the criticisms of the police are starting to mount as are the anxieties. A resident of a building that was affected by one of the fires says that he and his friends no longer park near to containers as they know there are going to be fires.
To date, the pyromaniac, who may have some assistance, has been responsible for setting fire to more than 280 containers and for 300,000 euros of damage.
