The objetive of this research was to conduct a study on accidental field burns in the county of Santa Maria-RS, Brazil to identify and characterize sites where they most frequently occur with the objective of helping in the planning and controlling of those burns. The variable of interest was the number of daily calls received by the Santa Maria Fire Department, from January 1st 1993 to December 31st 2004. It was observed that the Fire Department received on average 1.81 daily calls; that the calls were followed by a dry period of four days, on average; and most calls occurred during the afternoon and alongside the almost unhabited RS 287 highway. The month with the highest number of calls was August, and the year 1999 presented the highest occurrence number of field burns. Finally, the number of calls was equally distributed along the weekdays. The margins of the highways and the following city districts: Distrito Industrial, Medianeira, Itararé, Tomazzetti and Parque Pinheiro Machado presented the highest chances of burnings occurrence.
agriculture and cattle raising management; descriptive statistics; fire; burns
