A Chilean judge has ordered a volunteer firefighter and a former forestry official detained for allegedly planning and causing a mammoth forest fire that caused 137 deaths and made 16,000 people homeless in February. The court in Valparaiso ruled Saturday that the two men can be held for 180 days while they are investigated.
FILE - A resident flees an encroaching forest fire in Vina del Mar, Chile , Feb. 3, 2024. Police arrested a suspect on Friday, May 24, 2024, for allegedly causing the forest fire that left 137 dead and injured some 16,000 people in the Valparaíso region.
The chief prosecutor in the case, Osvaldo Ossandón, told journalists that the main suspect is Francisco Mondaca, a 22-year-old volunteer firefighter in Valparaiso who is accused of physically starting the fire. He said flares and fireworks were found in Mondaca’s vehicle. The regional prosecutor for Valparaiso, Claudia Perivancich, said investigators have evidence the two men agreed “in advance to carry out conduct of this type when the weather conditions were adequate.”
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