4th Martorell Forest Fire After 1989 One Accused Arrested
The Mossos have arrested the alleged perpetrator for 4th Martorell Forest Fire After 1989, which devastated 225 hectares, forced the eviction of fifty people and cut the AP-7. The regional police, in collaboration with the Rural Agents , have arrested the man, who is charged with a crime of arson due to gross negligence .
From the first hours that the fire broke out, investigators suspected it was human negligence . The first indications collected in the place where the flames started already showed that it was imprudence, precisely at a time when the authorities had warned of the high risk of forest fire due to weather conditions.
The most important forest fire of 2021, which started at 4:12 p.m. this Tuesday in the Serra de l’Ataix , in the municipality of Castellví de Rosanes (Baix Llobregat), had consumed just over 150 hectares at the last minute of the night of this Tuesday and, according to the first indications, it would be a fire in 4th Martorell.
The hypothesis with which the Rural Agents work and that the Mossos d’Esquadra are investigating is that it would have started due to the negligence of a man from the Can Sunyer urbanization , in the town of Castellví. The suspect would be performing fire risk tasks too close to the forest stand .
The fire, whether or not this hypothesis is confirmed, has devoured a good part of the Serra de l’Ataix, a green lung that appears behind Martorell and with which its inhabitants had recently been reunited “thanks to the pandemic”, Xavier lamented Fonollosa, mayor of the town.
Moved in different directions by different winds, mainly a marinade and another from the west, the fire has grown rapidly moments after it started. The accumulated heat has generated a column of smoke that has ended up falling on some of the 60 fire crews that have worked on the ground, putting some of the emergency officials in a hole and generating secondary sources.
Joan Rovira, fire chief of the southern metropolitan region, is confident that throughout tonight, if the wind gives a break, it will be possible to “stabilize the perimeter.” As of late Tuesday, approximately 70% of the area was controlled by Martorell Forest Officials.
The fire, fueled by the wind, has created secondary sources that have forced the AP-7 motorway to be cut at three points: at the Papiol towards Tarragona, where traffic is diverted towards the B-23 towards Barcelona; in Castellbisbal, also in the direction of Tarragona, and in Martorell in the direction of Barcelona, where traffic has been diverted via exit 25 towards the A-2.
According to data from the Rural Agents of Catalonia, the fire has already burned 152 hectares of surface, 151 of which are forested. Of the total, 46 hectares belong to Castellví, where the fire originated, and 107 to Martorell.
