At the beginning of August, the Hérault department was hit by several fires. The alleged perpetrator of these two fires was placed in pre-trial detention on August 4, 2022, the public prosecutor of Béziers announced to AFP on Saturday. The suspect is a 33-year-old man who is a former volunteer firefighter. He will appear on September 28 and faces ten years in prison.
It was on August 2 in the early evening that gendarmes spotted the strange presence of a man on a fire in the natural and agricultural area of Pezenas in Hérault. The individual had also been noticed in the afternoon. He was then arrested on the day of the incident and was under the influence of alcohol. He admitted in drunk tank to be the author of the fire. On the other hand, he disputed any responsibility in the first outbreak of fire and explained his gesture by his alcoholism, said prosecutor Raphaël Balland.
To the authorities, the individual declared living in Villeurbanne in the Rhône, having been a volunteer firefighter in the Ardèche between 2008 and 2011 and having come to the Hérault with his partner to visit her family. The man, already convicted of acts of violence by a spouse, was referred on August 4 to the Béziers prosecutor’s office.
This is not the first time that such a situation has occurred in the context of fires in France. Last month in the same department, a volunteer forester and firefighter admitted in police custody to being the author of several fires explaining his actions by the adrenaline rush they caused and a need for “social recognition”.
With already more than 47,000 hectares burned since the start of the year, France experienced a record number of burned areas in July, the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), which keeps statistics, announced on Friday. comparable since 2006, says AFP.