1967 Rio Doce State Park wildfire

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).

[4] 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.

[7] The ecological unit was created with the intention of safeguarding the last large remnant of native forest in this area,[8] through the efforts of Dom Helvécio Gomes de Oliveira, archbishop of Mariana, the then governor Benedito Valadares and his secretary of agriculture Israel Pinheiro.

[10][11] 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.

[4] 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.

[12] At this point the situation became much worse,[4] with the appearance of other fire lines, the increase in heat and the intensification of winds, providing flames that reached 40 meters in height.

[14] On October 18, Sergeant Agenor, who had spent three days in the forest making firebreaks in the Dionisio region, was trying to return home after a brief reduction in fire activity.

According to reports from José Lino, a worker for the Forestry and Agricultural Company (Companha Agrícola e Florestal - CAF) and the only survivor of the group, the fire began to advance at a rapid rate shortly afterwards, without enough time for everyone to evacuate the site properly.

The flames began to be controlled on October 24, after opening about 30 km of fire breaks in the Dom Helvécio Lagoon, Maringá Farm and Limoeiro Stream regions by three teams, with 30 workers from the CAF each, and the use of four tractors provided by Captain Manuel Pinheiro of the Rural Patrol.

[10] The firebreaks formed a kind of circle that restricted the fire lines to 15,000 hectares of the Rio Doce State Park, equivalent to about half of the reserve.

This process also protected much of the eucalyptus plantations, about 20,000 hectares, but there was a risk of the fire reaching populated areas in Dionísio and Timóteo if the wind blew strong and constant for 48 hours straight.

[18] In addition to the 12 human losses, the fire devastated approximately 9,000 hectares of the Rio Doce State Park, equivalent to one-third of the reserve.

[21] Some trails open to tourists pass through areas affected by the 1967 event, such as "Angico Vermelho"[22] and "Vinhático",[23] and traces of the disaster are only noticed when shown by the guides.

On the occasion his wife Romilda Andrade Costa and family members of other combatants were also honored under the presence of the Music Band of the 14th Military Police Battalion.