The detainee as the alleged author of negligence that caused the Burgohondo (Ávila) fire, the largest in Spain’s history, with 50,000 hectares burned, is the owner of the machine that started it, whose company was hired by a local livestock association to open a path for the cows.
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The Civil Guard arrested this man on Friday, who refused to testify before the agents, and also investigated the operator who was performing the work when the fire started, a resident of Arenas de San Pedro (Ávila) known as El Perejil.
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As El Mundo reported and La Vanguardia has been able to confirm from sources close to the investigation, the worker confessed at the scene that the fire started from sparks produced by the machine’s chain when they were removing it from the forest due to the prohibition decreed by the Junta of Castilla and León on using machinery in the forest that could cause fire.
Several witnesses explained to the Civil Guard that the machine in question had been working in the area during the days prior to the start of the fire, despite the fact that such work was not allowed in a high-risk area, mainly composed of low forest and broom shrubs.
The evidence confirms the Civil Guard’s hypothesis that a heavy rotary machine with a hydraulic hammer was used to open a new branch for cattle transit through the Sierra de Gredos, between Burgohondo and a pasture area in the municipality of Navarrevisca.
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The work would have been contracted by the Burgohondo Livestock Association, whose president has admitted this fact in statements before the Civil Guard, to the company Reforestaciones El Fresno. “We did commission the work, yes, but we never knew that this hammer was going to be used,” the rancher reportedly clarified, according to El Mundo.
A livestock association hired Reforestaciones El Fresno to open a forest path during a risk period
Both the machine owner and El Perejil are free while investigations continue. The Civil Guard points to the former as the presumed responsible party, as he allegedly gave the order to his employee to continue working despite the prohibition.
Although the operator claims that the fire did not start during the work, but when he was removing the machine with a hydraulic rock breaker hammer, both are being investigated for a crime of forest fire and another against natural resources and the environment, with the aggravating factor of affecting areas close to inhabited places.
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