The Polícia Judiciária (PJ) has arrested a 56-year-old man for starting a forest fire on Saturday near the banks of the Vouga River, in Vilarinho, Cacia parish, in the municipality of Aveiro.
Using a direct flame, the man set fire to an area of “low and dry vegetation,” near a “large quantity of already cut wood” and “various heavy machinery.”
The fire did not escalate further as a local resident detected the crime early while it was “still confined to the area of low vegetation” and immediately extinguished the flames. The individual then alerted the National Republican Guard (GNR).
Currently, the authorities are unable to provide “any rational motivation or plausible explanation” for the crime.
The suspect, “without any known professional occupation,” will appear before the judicial authorities in Aveiro for an initial judicial interrogation as a detained defendant.
