The Civil Guard has arrested a male of 33 years as the alleged perpetrator of one of the fires that broke out during the August wave in Ourense. The action, framed in the Operation Covelo, occurred two months after the events and the arrested person has already passed away judicial provision.
According to the investigations, he is attributed with starting the fire at Oak tree of Avia, focusing on the town of Vilar de Condes, at 16:28 p.m. on August 15That fire burned about 3.200 hectares, reached a perimeter greater than 43 km and it was not completely extinguished until two weeks later.
The investigation and origin of the fire
From the first moment, investigators believed it was a fire. deliberate. The Civil Guard specialists determined the starting point precisely and ruled out natural causes, based on the technical analysis of the terrain and the evidence collected.
That same holiday, a testimony placed a man in a small motorcycle in the vicinity of where the flames started a few dozen minutes earlier. It was also reported that, at a nearby communal meal, a person had uttered threats in a defiant tone, a fact that the Judicial Police team analyzed within the framework of Operation Covelo, despite the reluctance of some neighbors for fear of possible reprisals.
Damage, evacuations and deployment of resources
The fire in Carballeda de Avia affected several municipalities of O Ribeiro, forced confinement and evacuation of hundreds of people and caused structural damage in various buildings, with four homes destroyed. The burned area is around 3.200 hectares, of which approximately 2.000 were open scrubland and 1.200 were wooded..
To contain the spread of the fire it was necessary to wide deployment of human, land and air resources, with resources mobilized from several autonomous communities and the State. On that August 15, the firefighting teams also dealt with numerous simultaneous foci in different regions of Ourense.
The wave of fires in August
The wave of fires last August spread over more than 62 municipalities and forced the evacuation of about 400 people and the confinement of about 2.200According to data from the Galician Government, emergency services attended 666 spotlights during that month and the operation reached around 7.000 professionals from different administrations; the situation was not considered under control until the August 29th, XNUMX.
Another line of parallel research
In a different procedure but related to the same wave, the Civil Guard arrested in September to another man, 30 years old and resident of the Melón area, for his alleged involvement in several attempts recorded on August 18th, XNUMXAccording to the investigation, he would have acted with a motorcycle and a blowtorch; he is found released on charges awaiting judicial developments.
Legal situation of the detainee
The alleged perpetrator of the fire investigated in Carballeda de Avia was transferred by the Civil Guard to the Ribadavia Court, which agreed to its freedom with measures: You must appear periodically on the 1st and 15th while the proceedings continue.
The arrest, made two months after the events, reinforces the police hypothesis that the fire of Vilar de Condes It was provoked and allows to consolidate clues about the origin and circumstances, in a summer that left serious human and environmental consequences in Ourense.
