MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Arson suspected: Lula holds emergency meeting to address unusual number of fires

The unprecedented number of fires in São Paulo is believed to have been caused deliberately

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Sunday held an emergency meeting with Environment Minister Marina Silva to discuss the crisis triggered by a large series of fires in the state of São Paulo and elsewhere believed to be the result of arson. Two suspects were arrested this weekend.

The encounter took place in the situation room of the National Center for Preventing and Combating Forest Fires (Prevfogo) at the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama).

“I went once with Marina to Roraima and Amapá. You finish putting out the fire, you turn your back and it comes back again, even bigger. Then you put it out again and it comes back again,” Lula said.

“Even if the federal government and the state governments put all their personnel into fighting the fires, people need to stop setting fires, otherwise they will harm the health and lives of people and animals. This is our appeal,” Silva noted.

“At a meeting at Ibama this afternoon, alongside Minister Marina Silva, the president of the organization said that so far there have been no fires detected due to natural causes. This means that people are setting fires illegally since all the states in the country have already been warned and have banned the use of fire management,” Lula wrote on X.

“There are already around 3,000 firefighters across Brazil working to fight the outbreaks. The Federal Police will investigate and the government will work with the states to fight the fires,” he added.

São Paulo has decreed a 180-day emergency in 45 cities statewide due to the forest fires since Aug. 23. A change in weather since Saturday is already helping to reduce the number of fires, it was also reported.

The São Paulo Climate Emergency Management Center (CGE) released a bulletin Sunday morning about a cold front and rainfall after over 40 fire outbreaks with large clouds of intense smoke were reported on Saturday.

“This is a criminal action by those who are setting fires criminally. It's a war against fire and against crime,” Silva underlined after announcing on X that a Brazilian Air Force KC-390 aircraft had been deployed to São Paulo, although it was unable to operate because of the dense smoke.

The number of fires recorded so far in August in São Paulo is the highest for any month in the State since 1998 when the National Institute for Space Research's (INPE) Burn Program started keeping track of these incidents.

The Minister also said she spoke with São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas to express her solidarity and make herself available to “jointly face this situation, intensified by the strong winds and the drought.”