A volunteer firefighter was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation by the Perpignan judicial court.
He was prosecuted for starting a fire in the field of a town near the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales, in 2023.
“I wanted to understand what an arsonist felt,” the 53-year-old man said on the stand.
The courts decided that he had to submit to an obligation of care.
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Found guilty of “destruction of property using dangerous equipment”, the man had, in May 2023, attempted to set fire to a field in the town of Montner, near Perpignan, while the Pyrénées-Orientales department was placed at severe fire risk.
A burning piece of paper
The volunteer firefighter and employee at the water board of the urban community of Perpignan-Mediterranean at the time of the events, was surprised by a passer-by, while he was throwing a flaming paper from his vehicle.
The witness then brought the fire under control and saw the colors of the Perpignan-Mediterranean urban community on the suspect's vehicle, before he fled.
Quickly arrested, the man resigned when he was taken into police custody.
The court also ordered the former firefighter to pay 1,000 euros to SDIS 66 (Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of the Pyrénées-Orientales) for the damage suffered and a symbolic euro to the urban community where he worked.