The Guardia in Civil in Jaraíz de la Vera (Cáceres) arrested a man suspected of deliberately causing four fires during June and July.

The 68-year-old suspect was arrested on the 27th of last month in Extremadura after officers belonging to the environomental branch of the G.C., Seprona, had come to the conclusion that the fires had been started by somebody literally applying a flame to dry vegetation.

That’s to say that the fires were not caused by sparks from machinery or HT lines, nor were they caused by pieces of a broken bottle lying in the undergrowth acting as a magnifying glass – somebody had set light to vegetation.

Since the Regional Government of Extremadura put into motion the high, fire-risk Plan Infoex on the 23rd of May, the area of Jaraíz de la Vera (Cáceres) has suffered several hill fires.

Another arrest was made in connection with a forest fire in Sabinares del Arlanza (Burgos) but this time it had been caused through negligence rather than intentionally: the 47-year-old driver of a combined harvester had been working on his wheat fields between Tejada and Quintanilla del Coco.

As a consequence of the fire on Sunday the 24th of July, 900 people had to be temporarily evacuated from their homes in five villages and around 3,000 hectares of land were affected.

The fire started just after 12.00h which is when using harvesting machinery is forbidden due to the high risk of fire – between noon until 19.00h.

(News, Castilla-Leon/Extremadura)