Brazil’s Federal Police set up two inquiries into wildfires in the state of São Paulo under suspicion of human responsibility

Brasil de Fato

Brazil’s Federal Police has confirmed it has 31 inquiries across the country to investigate wildfires, mainly affecting the state of São Paulo and the Pantanal and Amazon biomes. Two of them were announced on Sunday (25) to investigate what is happening in São Paulo.

On Friday (23), São Paulo broke a national record with more than 2,300 fires. Over the weekend, residents of the region dealt with flight cancellations, unstable internet signals, interrupted outdoor activities, evacuations from home, and respiratory problems.  

The Federal Police statement was made after a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party) and the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, among other authorities.

“It’s atypical, but we can only draw conclusions at the end of the police investigations,” said Andrei Rodrigues, director-general of the Federal Police, referring to the scale of the fire in São Paulo.

About the possibility of the fires being the result of coordinated actions by criminal groups, Rodrigues said that it was still “too early to say” and asked to wait for the investigations to advance.

Marina Silva also commented on the case and even said that “there is a strong suspicion” that the fires were caused by human action.

Earlier on Sunday (25), the São Paulo government confirmed that two people had been arrested. One suspect was arrested in the region of São José do Rio Preto on Saturday (24) and the other on Sunday in Batatais, both cities in the state of São Paulo.

São Paulo decrees state of emergency due to fires 

On Saturday night, São Paulo declared a state of emergency in 45 cities due to the fires affecting the state’s interior. The federal government announced that it would send aircraft to help fight the flames. On Friday, two firefighters from a mill in Urupês, in the interior of São Paulo, died as a result of the fires.  

Since dawn on Sunday, the region has seen light rain, which means no new fire outbreaks have occurred. According to the Climate Emergency Management Center (CGE, in Portuguese), the forecast now is for overcast skies with intermittent rain and cold weather.