twenty-six suspected arsonists have been arrested since the beginning of the summer
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While forest fires of exceptional magnitude have affected part of France for a few months, twenty-six people suspected of being arsonists have been arrested since the beginning of the summer, confirmed the Ministry of the Interior. to World Tuesday August 16. Among them, six are in pre-trial detention and four have been sentenced.
“More than three hundred gendarmes were mobilized this summer for the prevention and identification of arsonists”, the ministry said.
A fifth conviction took place on Tuesday at Le Mans. A 40-year-old man tried in immediate appearance for having been the cause of two fires a few days ago in Sarthe, was sentenced to six months in prison. Despite the drought and thanks to the rapid intervention of firefighters, the fires he had started were limited “to a hedge and a bit of dry grass, along a road”according to the mayor of the town quoted by the newspaper Free Maine.
Spotted by a farmer from the town, then arrested by the gendarmes, he would have explained to them that the idea of setting fire would have come to him “while watching television”, noted the president of the court. Feeling a “certain fascination”the defendant wanted to see “what it was like on the field”. Given the absence of a criminal record and his social and professional integration, he will serve the firm sentence under an electronic bracelet.
Criminal track ruled out for “Landiras-2”
The year 2022 is the most affected, in terms of burned areas, of the past sixteen years, according to figures from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), which has kept comparable statistics since 2006. This assessment results in particular the two large successive fires in Gironde.
According to interior ministry, 10% of the 300,000 fires recorded each year correspond to deliberate acts. This figure is probably an underestimate, as criminal intent is difficult to prove.
In Gironde, three investigations were opened for fires “of criminal origin” who declared themselves in the communes of Soulac, Vensac and Blanquefort, according to the public prosecutor, Frédérique Porterie. The criminal thesis is also still favored concerning the first starts of the fire in the Landiras sector, in mid-July. A judicial inquiry has been opened by the head of “destruction by fire”.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, also said he suspected that a criminal act was at the origin of the resumption of fire in Landiras, which burned 7,400 hectares, for eight closely spaced fires had started that very morning.
Regarding this resumption of fire, on August 9, “no element allows to lean for a criminal origin”however, said the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office on Tuesday.
650 firefighters still mobilized in Landiras
Some 650 firefighters are still mobilized on Tuesday to neutralize the many hot spots that continued to burn on the perimeter of this vast fire. Of all the firefighters mobilized, nearly half are part of the European contingent deployed on site as part of the European Union’s civil protection mechanism, created in 2001.
Among them, 146 “strazacy” Poles make a strong impression with their work ” very rigorous “ and their 21 deployed vehicles. Are also present 141 “Feuerwehrleute” Germans and Austrians and 77 “firefighter” Romanians. A reinforcement all the more appreciated “to provide the maximum security work” before the expected rise in temperatures next week. In the evening, 21 Polynesian firefighters are also expected on site, soon joined by firefighters from Reunion and Mayotte.
“Our mission now is to extinguish the hot spots, to continue the work on the edge and to secure the tracks to avoid a new resumption of the fixed but not yet controlled fire”explained the lieutenant-colonel of the SDIS of Gironde, Laurent Pham, specifying that the fire “continues to burn underground, in peaty soil”.
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