Firefighter and former forestry officer arrested after forest fire in Chile with over 100 deaths

CNN
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Chilean authorities have arrested a volunteer firefighter and a former forestry official on suspicion of starting devastating forest fires that killed over a hundred people earlier this year.

The two suspects were charged with arson resulting in death on Friday, the public prosecutor’s office announced. A court in the city of Valparaíso ordered pre-trial detention on Saturday, the public prosecutor’s office announced.

According to the government, at least 137 people were killed in the fires that devastated large parts of central and northern Chile in February. 16,000 people were left homeless and more than 9,800 buildings were damaged.

According to estimates by the Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management in Chile, it was one of the worst disasters to hit the country in the last 30 years.

Investigators have evidence that the two men “had agreed in advance to this type of behavior, even though the meteorological conditions were precisely suited to triggering a fire of this magnitude,” regional prosecutor Claudia Perivancich said on Saturday.

Perivancich told local media that one of the suspects said there was a financial motive behind the plot. She also said the prosecutor’s office had requested a six-month investigation period and that she did not rule out that other people were involved in the attack.

CNN is trying to find out whether the two men have legal representation.