A 20-year-old man has been arrested by the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), with assistance from the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), suspected of committing five forest fire crimes between June 16 and July 6 in various parishes of the Fafe and Guimarães municipalities.
“During this period, the parishes of Arões, Cepães, and Infantas were hit by a wave of forest fires, causing alarm among local residents and consuming several hectares of forest,” the statement sent to newsrooms reads.
The PJ further notes that “such an anomaly in the occurrence records had already been observed in previous years.”
Investigations led to the “identification of a man” who, during the nighttime, “used a moped to travel secondary roads through the forest and, by direct flame, initiated numerous ignitions.”
“The various locations where the fires occurred are situated in areas with conditions for spreading to large forest patches, creating a heightened risk, potentially fueled by the combustible load present there and the region’s specific orography, where residential and industrial buildings exist,” the PJ explains, noting that “a vast collection of evidence” was gathered.
The detained individual will be presented tomorrow, Wednesday, to judicial authorities for a first interrogation to determine the coercive measures that will be applied.
The PJ also adds that combating the fires “required the use of both aerial and ground resources.”
