Three Fires in Eight Days at UFPE: The Federal Police Inquiry Into Brazil's Burning University

This view shows a large fire at a chemical plant in Itaquaquecetuba, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, on August 4, 2026. (Credit: Photo by Miguel SCHINCARIOL / AFP via Getty Images)

What began as a single laboratory fire on a Wednesday afternoon has turned into one of the most alarming episodes in Brazilian higher education in recent memory. In the span of eight days, the Federal University of Pernambuco suffered three separate fires — and this morning, with flames from the third blaze only extinguished at dawn, the Federal Police opened a formal criminal inquiry into what is happening at one of the country's most prominent research campuses.

Fire One: The Physics Department, September 30