“We had 119 detainees, either by the National Republican Guard or by the Judiciary Police”, declared José Luís Carneiro, in Batalha (Leiria).

According to the official, “other investigations are underway to detect the causes of other fires, and may lead to other arrests”.

The minister assured that this year the Government greatly strengthened “the inspection and surveillance mechanisms” and that “this inspection work” was intensified “in an articulation between the Republican National Guard and the Air Force itself, with aerial surveillance articulated with the 230 fixed lookout posts and, later, also the video surveillance itself, which is placed to protect the forest”.

“All these means have helped to ensure a detention rate that is already more than double what the detention rate was in previous years”, he said, considering that this “also shows the effectiveness of the system in the fighting arsonists”.