A 43-year-old farmer from Píñar (northern Granada) is being investigated over a forest fire within the municipality.

The man had been out using his combined harvester in an area of Piñar known as La Cañada at the foot of Sierra Arana (next to the town’s train station) when the vehicle apparently sparked the fire off.

It could have been a piece of metal hitting flint on the surface, causing a spark which set light to the bone-dry hay. The fire spread out of control burning 19,000 square metres of farmland and nearby a nearby wood running alongside the A-308 main road.

The fire, which necessitated the temporary closure of the road, took place on the 23rd of last month. A Seprona investigation team located the point where the fire started and suspected that the farmer who had been out cutting hay with machinery could have provoked the fire accidentally. Several eyewitnesses made statements to this effect.

The farmer, on the other hand, says that he has no idea how it started.

A whopping 95% of all fires was caused by the hand of man, normally through carelessness.

(News: Piñar, Montes Orientales, Granada, Andalucia)