The devastating wildfires in central Chile that killed over 130 people in February this year was allegedly set by two persons. The two persons named by the prosecutors are Francisco Ignacio Mondaca, a volunteer firefighter, and Francisco Pinto, an official from National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) of Chile, news agency Reuters reported.
Both suspects are in “pre-trial detention”, the report quoted the prosecutor's office in Valparaiso as saying on Saturday. Valparaiso is a coastal city located near the areas that were hit hardest by the wildfires.
Claiming that the CONAF official was the “mastermind” behind the fires, authorities said Mondaca set fire to the forest areas on February 2. There were four places where the fires first broke out.
CONAF functions under the agriculture ministry whose job is to prevent forest fires, according to the report.
The report said Reuters could not reach the two men’s attorneys for comments on the arrests and the charges levelled against them.
The motive is not clear either.
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Court Gives 6 Months To Finish Probe
According to the Reuters report, the prosecutors said they had “evidence” that Moncada and Pinto acted “deliberately”, and that they knew about the right weather conditions to start a fire.
"We have material that shows that they agreed to act jointly when the appropriate meteorological conditions arose to ensure that the fires occurred," regional prosecutor Claudia Perivancich was quoted as saying while speaking to reporters.
Officials reportedly found devices made of cigarettes and matches at all four places where fires first broke out.
The court has given the authorities six months’ time to complete the investigation, the prosecutor’s office at Valparaiso posted on X (formerly Twitter). The judge also said more work was needed on the missing victims’ cases and the suspects’ cell phones.
In another post from the same account, Prosecutor Osvaldo Ossandon said the authorities found that Mondaca was also linked to six previous fires in the area.