Dilip Kuner
SPAIN’S countryside is still burning – and police say arsonists are to blame for many of the wildfires that tore through forests, farmland and homes, killing four people.
Police have revealed that 48 suspects have been arrested and 134 more are under investigation for suspected arson since June.
So far this year, more than 400,000 hectares of land – over twice the average in recent decades – have been consumed by fire.
Hundreds of firefighters remain on the ground tackling the 12 ‘large fires’ still burning.
The biggest infernos include the fire in A Rua (Ourense), which scorched 44,424 hectares and became Galicia’s biggest blaze on record, while Uña de Quintana (Zamora) burned through 40,781 hectares.
The government has declared 16 of the country’s 17 regions ‘disaster zones’. Only the Basque Country has been spared. Under the designation, affected residents and businesses will be entitled to compensation for damaged property and emergency support for rebuilding.
In the Costa da Morte region of Galicia, two men from Olveiroa (A Coruña) were cuffed in ‘Operation Coppair’ over eight separate wildfires.
Investigators say the pair sparked the blazes while burning stolen copper cable to strip it for sale on the black market. Using petrol and blowtorches, they allegedly set fires in remote, wooded spots – but left them smouldering and unattended.
The resulting infernos caused around €20,000 in damage and threatened towns including Camariñas, Cee, Dumbria, Vimianzo and Zas.
Further south in Malaga province, another man has admitted to starting six wildfires in Teba. Some were lit just metres from people’s homes. Locals’ tips led police straight to the suspect, who confessed during questioning.
Meanwhile in Castilla y Leon, three separate cases rocked the region. A man in Zamora is accused of accidentally setting off a blaze in Puercas de Aliste–Gallegos del Rio that swallowed 3,000 hectares.
READ MORE:
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- ‘Heartless criminal’ started wild fire in Spain to further ‘business interests’
In Leon, another is under investigation for an ‘unintentional’ fire in Filiel–Lucillo and in Avila, officers say a man deliberately torched land in Cuevas del Valle, Mombeltran and El Arenal – destroying 2,200 hectares.
Elsewhere, a 48-year-old man was arrested near Madrid after allegedly setting off a blaze in the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares reserve that scorched 31 hectares of protected grassland.
In Extremadura two men have been arrested for setting a fire to ‘clear undergrowth to enable hunting’.
Perhaps most shocking of all, in Avila province a firefighter admitted to setting a fire himself, telling investigators he wanted the extra work, while in Galicia, a 63-year-old woman in Muxía is being probed over five separate fires, while younger suspects in Ourense and Celanova face charges for deliberately torching forestland.
The fires, fuelled by tinder-dry conditions and Spain’s most punishing heatwave since 1975, have sparked not only environmental catastrophe but also a bitter political storm in Madrid.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has tried to seize the moment to call for unity, chairing a new inter-ministerial climate commission and urging opposition parties to help forge a ‘state pact’ to confront future crises.
But his main rival, Alberto Núñez Feijoo of the conservative Popular Party, has accused the government of dragging its feet and failing to respond quickly enough to the crisis.
The PP has demanded tougher measures, including the creation of a national arsonist register, and insists the army should have been mobilised sooner’.
Almost 90 administrative fines have been issued for breaches of fire safety laws.
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