The Guardia Civil have arrested the suspected culprit behind two hillfires in Marbella and Ojén during August 2023, which affected the Parque Nacional de Sierra de las Nieves.

Both fires broke out in the same area only four days apart. Furthermore, one of these fires affected 5.7 hectares of forestland, of which 3.19 corresponded to the protected area of Sierra de las Nieves.

Over a hundred firefighters and other Infoca personnel were deployed together with seven aircraft. Officers belonging to Seprona afterwards investigated the fire to establish the facts.

These efforts established the presence of an individual in the fire zone on those days, as well as firmly establishing that the fires were deliberately started.

The suspect is a resident of Marbella, however the motivation appears to have been to burn off mountain shrub and thus regenerate pastures stronger than before thus serving as grazing vegetation for livestock, which is an ancestral practice.

(News: Marbella, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)

Keywords: Hill Fires, Suspect Arrested, Deliberate, Burning Off Mountain Shrubs, Aircraft, Infoca, Firefighters

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