More than three months following the fatal fire in Chile, authorities have apprehended a firefighter and a forestry official on suspicion of igniting a blaze that claimed 137 lives in the resort town of Vina del Mar in February, Al Jazeera reported.
“An arrest warrant was issued today against the person who started the fires in February in the Valparaiso region,” where Vina del Mar is situated, stated police director Eduardo Cerna during a news conference.
Shortly after, the Valparaiso regional prosecutor’s office confirmed the arrest of a second suspect, an official of the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf), the entity responsible for combating forest fires and managing national parks. Both individuals will face charges of arson resulting in fatalities and will be detained pending trial.
According to Al Jazeera’s report on Saturday, numerous fires erupted simultaneously on February 2 around the coastal city of Vina del Mar, approximately 70 miles (110km) northwest of Chile’s capital, Santiago.
Ivan Navarro, chief of the environmental crime investigation authority, revealed that detectives reconstructed the actions of the arrested firefighter before, during, and after the fire. “We were able to determine the exact locations where the fires broke out and find the device that started them,” he stated. “We were also able to determine the involvement of a second person, accused of being the mastermind behind the arson.”
Furthermore, Public Ministry investigators found evidence indicating that the inferno originated from small simultaneous blazes near Lake Penuelas, next to Vina del Mar, before being exacerbated by hot and windy weather.
“All of us … knew that this had been an intentional attack,” remarked Vina del Mar Mayor Macarena Ripamonti. “Today we can have that degree of certainty.”
The blaze, the second deadliest worldwide this century, was intensified by winds and a heatwave, with temperatures reaching approximately 40 degrees Celsius, according to Al Jazeera.
Local media reported that the apprehended firefighter is a 22-year-old who joined the volunteer force a year and a half ago.
“We are completely devastated by what happened, it is a totally isolated incident … we have served Valparaiso for more than 170 years and cannot allow such things,” expressed Vicente Maggiolo, commander of the 13th Fire Company of the city of Valparaiso.