The Civil Guard has investigated a 52-year-old man as the alleged perpetrator of the forest fire that occurred on July 18 at around 8:15 a.m. in the vicinity of the Camino de los Neveros, in the area known as Cañada Macuca de Huétor Vega (Granada) after the radio-controlled plane he was driving collided with a power line.
The Emergency Coordination Center of the Government of Andalusia alerted the Civil Guard of the existence of the fire and a patrol from the Granada Nature Protection Service immediately moved to the area. When they arrived at the scene, the fire was already controlled by the extinguishing means of the Junta de Andalucía and had burned, according to an Environmental agent, an approximate area of 75 hectares.
Seprona agents inspected the area where the fire started and located what looked like the main rotor of an unmanned and radio-controlled aircraft. Apparently the aircraft collided with the power line and fell to the ground. With the impact, the lithium batteries of the plane broke and when exposed to the air, intense oxidation occurred and the batteries exploded, and this explosion was what caused the fire.
The Civil Guard launched an investigation to locate the owner of the aircraft. The agents located two witnesses who put them on the trail of the suspect, a man whom they had seen for several days flying a small plane with a radio control.
Once located and identified, the Civil Guard knew that this man was the first to call the emergency service of the Junta de Andalucía through telephone 112 alerting of the fire. Seprona agents have investigated this man as the alleged perpetrator of a fire due to serious recklessness.
