The first findings had led to the conclusion that the Anglet fire, which devastated 165 hectares of a forest in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, on July 30, without fortunately causing any victims, was "of human origin". This Friday, a man was taken into custody at the Bayonne police station and must be brought to court during the day, the Parisian learned from a judicial source, confirming information from Sud-Ouest.
We do not know at this stage the possible motivations of this suspect, living, according to the local newspaper, near the place of the fire, which started in a sports complex leaning against the forest of Chiberta, an area of pine forest of 270 hectares in the heart from Anglet.
In the morning, the Bayonne prosecutor's office announced in a press release the opening of a judicial investigation for "destruction by fire". A press conference will take place at the end of the day, "in view of the new elements revealed [...] in the context of the fire in the Chiberta forest", the text specifies.
5 to 7 years in prison
Last week, Caroline Parizel, deputy prosecutor of Bayonne had specified to our colleagues from AFP that "there was no lightning or electric wire which would have caused a spark" and concluded: "Which means that there was a human intervention, but it could be a cigarette butt, or a shard of a bottle that would have had a magnifying effect. "
Investigators from the Bayonne judicial police must in particular determine whether the fire is of criminal origin or not. The prosecution recalled Saturday that "even in the absence of intention", an individual responsible for destroying a forest faces 5 to 7 years imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 euros.
