The 49-year-old suspect was heard during a preliminary judicial interrogation on Monday afternoon at the Seia Court, where the judge ordered his preventive detention, confirmed a source from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Guarda of the Polícia Judiciária (PJ).
The fires erupted in the locality of Sandomil, in the municipality of Seia, in the district of Guarda, allegedly started “using a direct flame, in the context of a presumed dispute between the suspect and a neighbor. One fire was near a residential house and the other in spontaneous vegetation formations, in a location favorable for propagation,” the PJ stated.
The man was detained on Saturday, September 6, by the GNR at the Territorial Post of Seia, where he awaited the arrest by Judicial Police inspectors on suspicion of committing the deliberate crime of forest fire.
The alert was raised by the neighbor through the emergency number 112, and the GNR of Seia dispatched patrols with officers from the post who conducted the initial assessment of the event, identifying witnesses who pointed to the man as the alleged perpetrator, according to the PJ.
The GNR officers found the 49-year-old man “with burns and minor injuries” and, after identifying him, took him to the GNR Territorial Post in Seia.
The fire in Sandomil began on Saturday morning and was only brought under control by Sunday morning with the help of the rain, stated a source from the Civil Protection agency.
The fight against the flames mobilized 600 operators and 12 aerial units.
The Mayor of Seia, Luciano Ribeiro, mentioned that the fire spread through various localities and industrial areas, destroying “an uninhabitable derelict house” and some agricultural outbuildings.
This is the fifth alleged arsonist detained by the Polícia Judiciária in the district of Guarda since mid-August.
