How many people arrested for starting fires this August ended up in prison?

BarcelonaOver the past seven weeks People have been remanded in custody for allegedly starting fires that plagued Galicia, Castilla y León, and Extremadura this August, according to data from the High Courts of Justice in these regions. However, since the beginning of June, more than fifty arrests have been made across the country for causing fires, according to the Ministry of the Interior's tally. Furthermore, 142 people have been investigated for the same reason since the beginning of summer.

In the case of the majority of those arrested and imprisoned for causing fires, the factors that led judges to send the detainee to custody have to do with the risk that the suspects would commit a repeat offense or decide to flee to avoid prosecution. In this regard, they have assessed the severity of the sentence that could be imposed—up to twenty years in prison—which in all cases will be less if the fire is due to recklessness or negligence.

Specifically, the courts have ordered the imprisonment of three people in Galicia, another three in Castilla y León, and another in Extremadura, in this case for a fire in the city of Badajoz on August 18. In Galicia, the first person to be remanded in custody, on August 17, was the suspect in the serious fire in Oímbra. The flames burned up to 17,000 hectares and caused serious injuries to three firefighters, one of whom was released from hospital this week. The Galician courts have also remanded in custody without bail a man who was arrested in Villardevós (Ourense) for allegedly starting a fire that burned 578 hectares. In El Pino (Coruña), a 78-year-old man suspected of starting four fires on July 25 and the following days has been remanded in custody.

Among those provisionally imprisoned in Castilla y León is a forest firefighter suspected of intentionally starting the fire that destroyed 2,200 hectares in the municipalities of Cuevas del Valle, Mombeltrán, and El Arenal (Ávila). Once arrested, he confessed to starting the fire, and investigators believe he did so for work, as he had secured a ten-day job extinguishing another fire. In the province of Ávila, a man accused of starting several fires, some simultaneously, in the early hours of August 25-26 on the northern slopes of the Sierra de Gredos has also been held in provisional prison.

A man arrested for the Molinaseca fire (León) is also in prison, in this case for reckless forest fire—which carries a lesser sentence. The 75-year-old suspect confessed that the fire started in a bonfire he had prepared for cooking. In Castile and León, the person responsible for the blaze that forced the evacuation of 400 people in Berlanga del Bierzo has also been brought before a court. The young man, aged 20, was unable to testify due to his mental health. In this case, instead of remanding him in custody, the judge opted to release him and, as a precautionary measure, order him to be admitted to a psychiatric unit.

What penalties can be imposed for causing a fire?

The Penal Code provides for sentences of between one and five years for starting fires in mountains or forests, increasing depending on the impact of the blazes. In the most serious cases, if there is a risk to life or physical integrity, the sentences range from ten to twenty years.

The law also provides for sentences of between three and six years in prison when the blazes affect "an area of considerable size" or cause natural damage such as severe soil erosion, significant alterations in animal or plant life, or if the fire affects a protected natural area. The sentences also range from three to six years for fires near inhabited areas, or for fires caused by taking advantage of weather conditions that "significantly increase" the risk of the blazes spreading. The Penal Code also includes within this range cases where the fire was started to obtain economic benefit at the expense of the effects of the fire.