Presenting at the Guarda Court on Tuesday for an initial judicial interrogation, the suspect was ordered to be held in preventive custody at a psychiatric prison facility, according to judicial sources.
The woman in her seventies is suspected of setting nine forest fires in the Outeiro de São Miguel area, on the outskirts of Guarda, during July and August.
“The woman allegedly ignited the fires for trivial reasons, using a direct flame on accumulations of dry fuels near small pine and oak groves, during a period marked by severe wildfires in the same district,” stated the Judicial Police (PJ) in a release.
At the time, there were weather conditions conducive to fire spread, “with all incidents occurring under maximum fire risk warnings issued by the IPMA.”
“The fires were set during the night and did not escalate further due to the prompt intervention of the Special Rural Firefighting Device.”
The PJ reported that one of the fires was contained by inspectors present at the scene “monitoring these forested areas after previous ignitions,” and they managed to control the blaze “using extinguishers until the rapid response teams of the Guarda Volunteer Firefighters arrived and extinguished it.”
The woman was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department of the PJ in Guarda, in close cooperation with the Rural Ignition Reduction Task Force—Central Interior, comprising elements of the GNR, Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), and PJ, along with the Environmental Protection Unit (NPA) of the GNR in Guarda.
The inquiry is being overseen by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guarda.
