A firefighter was arrested in Chili accused of being responsible for fire which caused 137 deaths at the beginning of February in the city of Viña del Marreported the director of the Investigative Police (PDI), Eduardo Cerna.
“The arrest warrant was obtained for the author of the fires that occurred in the month of February in the Valparaíso region,” Cerna said in a press conference about the results of the investigation into this incident.
Several fires broke out simultaneously on February 2 around the coastal city of Viña del Mar, 110 km northwest of Santiago. The incident caused 137 deaths and 16,000 victimsaccording to official figures.
“The field work, the gathering of evidence; the analysis, the cross-referencing of information was what made it possible to locate, establish behavioral patterns and geographical publications of movements” of the detained firefighter, Cerna explained.
Local media reported that the firefighter is a 22-year-old young man who had joined the force – which is not a volunteer in Chile – a year and a half ago.
“We are completely devastated by what happened, it is a completely isolated event (…) we have been serving Valparaíso for more than 170 years and we cannot allow ourselves to have this type of situation,” he told reporters. Vicente Maggiolo, commander of the Fire Corps of the 13th company of the city of Valparaíso.
