The carrying out of agricultural fires led to the arrest of two men, during the weekend, in the district of Bragança, for having generated forest fires.
One of the arrests occurred in the area of São Julião de Palácios, in the county of Bragança, and the other in the municipality of Vila Flor, and in both cases the suspects in the forest fire crime were caught in the act.
According to information released by the GNR, the two detainees, a 67-year-old man in Bragança and a 58-year-old man in Vila Flor, were carrying out agricultural burning, and lost control, allowing the flames to spread.
The arrest in São Julião de Palácios occurred on 18th November in the afternoon. A forest fire prevention patrol by the Environmental Protection Corps GNR detected a column of smoke. The suspect fled on foot, “the moment he spotted the GNR military,” but ended up being “intercepted and detained.”
The man alleged that “his intention was to burn for the purpose of renovating the pasture, but lost control, which led to the burning of about 30,000 square meters of weeds,” as indicated by the GNR.
The previous day, on Friday, soldiers from the Territorial Post of Vila Flor detained another man of 58 years for the same crime of forest fire and under the same circumstances.
The GNR reports that “the individual was burning a surplus when the flames spread, having burned six thousand meters of weeds.”