Europe 1 with AFP 2:04 p.m., August 22, 2022
A worker in conflict with his son, a volunteer firefighter, was imprisoned after admitting to being the cause of a fire in Champagnole in the Jura, a department particularly affected by the fires this summer, the prosecution announced on Monday.
The 54-year-old suspect was remanded in custody pending trial by the Lons-le-Saunier Criminal Court on September 8 for destruction by fire, the prosecutor said in a statement. of the city Lionel Pascal.
A worker in conflict with his son, a volunteer firefighter, was imprisoned after admitting to being the cause of a fire in Champagnole in the Jura, a department particularly affected by the fires this summer, the prosecution announced on Monday.
The 54-year-old suspect was remanded in custody pending trial by the Lons-le-Saunier Criminal Court on September 8 for destruction by fire, the prosecutor said in a statement. of the city Lionel Pascal.
The fire was contained by firefighters
On Wednesday around noon, a wildfire was observed in Champagnole, in the east of the department.
The fire destroyed approximately 400 m² of vegetation before being contained by firefighters a few meters from a gas tank 80% full and a warehouse containing 450 tonnes of fertilizer.
The first testimonies collected by the gendarmes of the Jura made it possible to establish "that a red vehicle had left the scene precipitously at the start of the fire", according to the prosecutor.
The vehicle was then spotted by the military who arrested the driver, corresponding to the description.
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A conflict with a volunteer firefighter
In police custody, the man initially said he "threw a cigarette butt while driving and pleaded negligence".
Confronted with the statements of witnesses, he then claimed "to have put his cigarette on the grass and then to have left" without having had "the intention of setting fire", before finally admitting that he had "deliberately set fire to vegetation with his lighter", according to Mr. Pascal.
Asked about the reasons for his acting out, he mentioned a "conflict with his son, a volunteer firefighter" and admitted "that he had been able to light this fire because of the resentment that this situation aroused in him. “, added the magistrate.
The suspect, socially and economically well integrated, was sentenced in 2011 for drunk driving.
A psychiatric expertise was ordered.
At the beginning of August, more than 1,000 hectares of forest had been reduced to ashes in the south-east of the Jura, in one week, by fires on an "unprecedented scale", according to the authorities.
The department has been classified in a situation of "crisis" drought, the ultimate level, since August 1.