Fire in the Aude: the confirmed criminal track, two investigating judges seized

essential
The Montpellier prosecution favors a voluntary human origin for the Corbières fire, which destroyed 17,000 hectares and caused a victim.

In the investigation carried out on the origins and consequences of the devastating and murderous fire having ravaged the Corbières massif in the Aude between Tuesday 5 and Thursday, August 7, it is now the regional center of the Montpellier prosecution that directs the investigations, the Carcassonne prosecutor’s office. As a reminder, it is the research brigades (BR) of Carcassonne and Narbonne who are in charge of investigating, with the precious support of the gendarmes of the research section (SR) of Montpellier.

This Wednesday, August 13, it is in this context that the Public Prosecutor of Montpellier joined and confirmed the remarks made on August 12 by the mayor of Ribaute Alain Coste in our columns, about a track of the throttle no longer holding the road.

“Any natural cause is excluded”

“As the investigations of gendarmes and specialized services, it appeared that this fire had an anthropogenic origin (made by a human being, editor’s note), any natural cause being excluded, said yesterday the public prosecutor of Montpellier. These same experts consider that in view of the conditions for this departure of fire, he could have a criminal cause resulting from a voluntary act”.

“However, specifies the Montpellier prosecutor’s office, this first expertise necessarily requires being confirmed by numerous additional investigations, the duration of which can be important”.

For this reason, “a college of two investigating judges was seized given the human, environmental and material consequences of this fire”. As a reminder, the fire broke out on August 5 at around 4:15 p.m. between the municipalities of Ribaute and Lagrasse, along the D 212. The results are particularly high in terms of victims, since a person died in the fire of his house. There are also two seriously injured, as well as several light injured people including twenty firefighters. Environmental damage is also extremely important, since the fire has traveled around 17,000 hectares. Fire also crossed 100 ha of urbanized or artificialized areas, causing the destruction of at least thirty-six housing and many vehicles.

Comments (0)
Add Comment