Two men are being prosecuted for endangering the lives of others after being arrested smoking in the forest in the Gironde department, in the southwest of France, the victim of very serious forest fires.
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On Wednesday, after the death of two professional firefighters responding to an intervention in Mérignac, near Bordeaux, the public prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul announced a tougher criminal prosecution against the use of fire in a forest environment, and in particular the throwing of cigarette butts.
A 29-year-old individual caught smoking in a forest area in Lège-Cap-Ferret during the night from Wednesday to Thursday was taken into police custody and brought before the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office on Friday.
He was the subject of a criminal offense with a ban on appearing in three departments in the region for six months.
That same day, while the gendarmes were checking a 26-year-old man smoking in the forest in Lacanau, they noticed that he had also lit a barbecue the day before next to his camp.
Currently in police custody, “he will be referred to the prosecution during the weekend”, specifies Mr. Gaudeul.
The use of fire in a forest environment in the departments of Landes, Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne, where it is prohibited, is now punishable by one year of imprisonment and a fine of $24,000, for endangering the lives of others.
While the fire, which started around midday on Wednesday, continues to devour the Arcachon basin, where it covered more than 14,000 hectares on Friday, the prosecutor confirmed that the start of this fire “would have been caused by the use of a brush-clearing machine used by workers from a company responsible for cleaning the surroundings of a high-voltage line”.
He recalled that the use of this machine was indeed authorized at that time, by prefectural decree. The ban on “all forestry work using thermal engines” in the department was taken a few hours later.
