Fires in the Hérault: what we know about the pyromaniac firefighter, author of several fires

Frédéric Michel, edited by Laura Laplaud 10:54 a.m., July 29, 2022

The fight against fires will also involve a fight against arsonists.

As part of an investigation related to fire starts in the Hérault, a man, who works as a volunteer firefighter, admitted to being the author of several fires in the department in recent weeks.

On the other hand, he claims not to be the author of the fire which destroyed 800 hectares in Gignac.

He was charged and imprisoned.

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This 37-year-old man was so far uneventful.

Well integrated in his village of which he is elected municipal, he has just spent his first night in prison.

In front of the gendarmes, in police custody, he explained to start fires to bring in the firefighters when he himself is a volunteer firefighter.

Year round, the man is a forest sapper, that is to say, he preserves natural areas and protects the forest.

The fire gave him "excitement"

Placed in police custody, he explained that setting fire gave him "excitement, adrenaline".

But he also says that it allowed him to get out of an oppressive family environment.

The public prosecutor mentioned an individual in search of social recognition.

"We will have in the arsonist a real search for excitement, fulfillment, a desire which will result in the destruction of property through the fires", explains Mickael Morlaix Riveli, forensic expert in psychology.

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"There is no typical profile among arsonists. We will have very varied social categories, economic categories, professional categories. What we know is that the personality disorder is the comorbidity number 1 among individuals who are found guilty or who are prosecuted for acts of arson,” he explains.

"A sudden act"

“There are people who have an extremely limited relationship with the law, who have a certain intolerance of frustration, who are not concerned with the consequences of their actions and who are often in fairly impulsive behavioral dynamics. which does not mean that it is not thought out. But we are going to be in a passage to the act which will be sudden and which will be quite intense, "concludes the forensic expert in psychology.

Fires in the town of Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquière

This volunteer firefighter admitted to being the cause of at least six fire starts this summer and several in the past three years around his town, Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquière.

The investigation will have to determine the exact number of fires he caused.

Each time he used his lighter and stood nearby to watch.

He faces 15 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros.