The 1967 Rio Doce State Park wildfire was a major forest fire that occurred in the Rio Doce Valley, located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the 1960s. The Rio Doce State Park (Parque Estadual do Rio Doce - PERD), considered to be the largest Atlantic Forest reserve in the state, has 35,976 hectares (ha) according to 2019 data - information prior to the fire stated that there were 30,000 hectares - distributed between the municipalities of Dionísio, Marliéria and Timóteo. It was created in 1944.
In mid-September 1967, during a prolonged drought, a fire of unknown causes was started in the park that lasted over a month and consumed 9,000 hectares of the reserve, managed by the State Forestry Institute (Instituto Estadual de Florestas - IEF). Twelve people died in fighting the flames, after fighters led by Sergeant Agenor Almeida Costa were surrounded by a line of fire on October 18, near the Dom Helvécio Lagoon. It is therefore the second largest forest fire in Brazil in number of fatalities, second only to the fire in Paraná in 1963, which left 110 dead.
The fire was brought under control on October 24 after about 30 kilometers (km) of firebreaks were opened, but fires remained active for at least another week. Plantations in the vicinity and some homes were also affected. Despite the size of the native forest destroyed, the reserve's forests have not suffered another major fire and this has allowed the vegetation and soil to regenerate naturally.
Context
The Rio Doce State Park is located in the Rio Doce Valley, eastern Minas Gerais, a region that had its native Atlantic Forest severely devastated due to the extraction of wood to feed the furnaces of local industries and to give way to farming activities and eucalyptus monoculture throughout the 20th century. The ecological unit was created with the intention of safeguarding the last large remnant of native forest in this area, through the efforts of Dom Helvécio Gomes de Oliveira, archbishop of Mariana, the then governor Benedito Valadares and his secretary of agriculture Israel Pinheiro. Its foundation occurred through decree-law No. 1,119 of July 14, 1944. Due to the devastation of nearby forests, protection of the PERD was strengthened in 1962, when the IEF took over administration. Occasional fires occurred until then, but surveillance began to be intensified and deforested areas were reforested. On the other hand, there was no precedent for fire on the scale reached in 1967.
History
Origin of the wildfire
Information from the time shows that the exact cause of the origin of the fire is unknown, but the first suspicions referred to the release of a cigarette tip, burned in some pasture that reached the conservation unit; purposeful motivation; or even spontaneous combustion because of the heat, in mid-September 1967. Major Vicente Rodrigues, commander of the Rural Vigilance, believed that the front fire that started in Dionísio was caused by cigarette butts left on the side of the road, while the front fire in the region of Maringá Farm, near the Doce River, on the border between Timóteo and Ipatinga, may have been "sabotage" by timber smugglers, hunters and fishermen angry with the police inspections. Less than a year ago hunting and logging had been prohibited, and fishing was restricted to the Dom Helvécio Lagoon and on weekends. During the fire one person was arrested setting fire to the forest near Maringá Farm, but no further details were released. Later the hypothesis of a cigarette was dismissed as the fire in Dionisio started in the middle of the forest. Suspicion returned to the charcoal ovens near the park, which possibly let off sparks. According to information from the Ministry of the Environment, the fire would have started with a bonfire left by a tourist.
It is known for sure that the region faced a prolonged drought and a period of high temperatures, which contributed to the spread of the flames with the help of the wind. At a rainfall station operated by the National Water Agency (Agência Nacional de Águas - ANA) in Coronel Fabriciano the only daily precipitation accumulations above 3 millimeters (mm) in the period from April 21 to November 17 were 21 mm on May 18 and 11 mm on September 14, but precipitation had been below average since January (the wet season runs from October to April). Furthermore, the Rio Doce State Park surveillance team, consisting of ten soldiers, one corporal, and Sergeant Agenor Almeida Costa, was small compared to the size of the park. If a spark started a fire in the middle of the forest it would hardly be noticed immediately, with enough time for fire proliferation.