Exonerated, the person who had been placed in police custody on Monday in the investigation into the origin of a fire still in progress in Landiras (Gironde), was “released” in the night, announces the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office in a press release on Wednesday.
The person was released at 1 a.m., “the expertise, analysis of the elements collected and hearings carried out, exonerating him”, adds the press release.
“The investigations are continuing in the context of the flagrance which has been extended for eight additional days”, according to the prosecution.
The investigation was opened for “destruction by fire of wood, forest, moor, maquis or plantation of others that could cause damage to people” committed in the town of Landiras, prosecutor Frédérique Porterie said on Monday.
The man, a 39-year-old Girondin, had already been heard for similar facts. He had been suspected of “forest destruction by incendiary substance” in a case finally dismissed in 2014, “in the absence of convincing evidence”, according to the prosecution on Tuesday.
The Landiras fire, 40 km south of Bordeaux, has now destroyed 13,600 hectares of forest since July 12.
The prosecution announced Friday favoring the “criminal thesis” to explain the outbreak of this fire, one of the two giant fires that have been raging since July 12 in Gironde with that of La Teste-de-Buch.