He is 39, lives near Landiras and did not confess spontaneously. The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office delivered new information on Tuesday on the 39-year-old man placed in police custody on Monday as part of the investigation into the fire of criminal origin which has ravaged part of the south of the Gironde for a week now and has already burned 13,000 hectares of forest. He confirmed in particular that this resident had already been heard about the ignition of a fire in 2012 but the case had finally been dismissed in 2014.
Regarding the fire that is currently raging, the custody of the suspect, “which cannot be explained for the moment”, must be extended on Tuesday.
Several departures of claims observed in the same area
According to a press release from the prosecutor of the Republic of Bordeaux, Frédérique Porterie, published Monday evening, the findings of the investigation “accredit a deliberately malicious act” at the origin of the fire in Landiras, one of the two forest fires , with that of La Teste-de-Buch, which ravaged more than 19,000 hectares and forced more than 34,000 people, residents and vacationers, to evacuate their homes since July 12 in Gironde.
“On July 12, at 4.25 p.m., a mechanic who was traveling with his daughter (…) observed (…) a vehicle parked on the side of the road which started quickly in his sight. When he arrived at the parking lot, the witness noticed that the fire was spreading. He stopped and tried in vain to turn it off, ”detailed the prosecutor.
The Teste-de-Buch fire caused by a broken down van
The investigators made a connection between this disaster and “other fire starts observed in the same area on the same day but at different times”, as well as for “three other fire starts observed between July 13 and 15 ” , “quickly circumscribed”. However, “clues remain to be exploited in order to eliminate or retain the thesis of the same author”, said the magistrate again.
In the investigation of the other fire, in La Teste-de-Buch, near Arcachon, the facts “do not present a criminal nature and are part of a context of involuntary crime”, with a van equipped with a dumpster that broke down and caught fire. An expertise will be carried out to know “the mechanical condition of the vehicle and its state of maintenance before the start of the disaster”, as soon as it is accessible.