It is one of the plagues of the departmental bodies of firefighters: arsonists.
A volunteer firefighter, suspected of being the cause of 27 fires in six months in the Saumur region, has been indicted and placed in pre-trial detention, a judicial source learned on Monday.
This 42-year-old man is suspected of having committed "27 incidents of fires in Brain-sur-Allonnes, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Breil" between April 7 and September 17, 2021, indicated the prosecutor of the Republic of Saumur, Alexandra Verron.
According to Ouest-France, the lighter he was using to light the fires was found on him at the time of his arrest.
Arrested at the end of a long investigation and placed in police custody on Friday, he was referred to the Saumur prosecutor's office, and indicted on charges of "willful destruction by fire" and "by dangerous means", and placed in pre-trial detention Sunday.
He justifies his actions by a recent "traumatic event" in his life
Judicial information was also opened at the request of the prosecutor.
The suspect faces a 10-year prison sentence.
Also according to the regional daily, the gendarmes suspected this man who was near the fires when he was not on duty.
On September 8, the soldiers noticed a vehicle similar to his near a fire starting.
Volunteer firefighter, this father "perfectly integrated and without criminal record", would have started fires by targeting "woods, vegetation, the forest", according to the prosecutor.
About 50 ha would have been destroyed.
At least 40 complaints from owners have already been registered.
Read alsoHérault: a 47-year-old pyromaniac firefighter imprisoned for having started 13 fires
"This had created a certain stir locally because many of these plots belong to hunters", underlined Alexandra Verron, who specifies that as a firefighter, "he intervened on some of these fires".
For the moment, the suspect has provided investigators with explanations that are still confused: he claimed "to have suffered a traumatic event in his family" (the loss of a loved one) and said that he wanted to hunt "images that he wanted. burn ”, indicated the magistrate.
According to the prosecutor of the Republic of Saumur, the statements of this man will have to be re-specified in the context of a possible psychiatric expertise.
