Firefighter and ex-forestry official arrested over forest fire in Chile that killed more than a hundred people

CNN
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Chilean authorities have arrested a volunteer firefighter and a former forestry official on suspicion of causing devastating forest fires that killed more than 100 people earlier this year.

According to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, the two suspects were charged on Friday with arson resulting in death. A court in the city of Valparaíso ordered them into pre-trial detention on Saturday, the office said.

At least 137 people died in the fires that ravaged large parts of central and northern Chile in February, displacing 16,000 people and damaging more than 9,800 buildings, government figures show.

According to estimates from the Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management in Chile, it was one of the largest disasters recorded in the country in the past thirty years.

Investigators have evidence that the two men “had agreed in advance to carry out this type of behavior when the meteorological conditions were just sufficient to guarantee that a fire of this magnitude would occur,” regional prosecutor Claudia Perivancich said Saturday.

Perivancich told local media that one of the suspects said there was a financial motive behind the plot. She also said prosecutors have requested a six-month investigation period and have not ruled out the possibility that more people are involved.

CNN is investigating whether the two men have legal representation.