SANTA CESAREA TERME: CARABINIERI AND FORESTERS IDENTIFY AND REPORT AN Incendiary
FIRE SET FROM A WALL, THEN EXTENDED FOR 2 HECTARES
Yesterday afternoon, thanks to a timely report from a citizen who had spotted an expanding column of smoke, the Carabinieri Operations Center alerted the patrols of the Poggiardo station and the Otranto Forestry Unit.
These, who promptly intervened on site, in the “Lampitedde” district in the Santa Cesarea Terme countryside, found that the fire had already spread through approximately 2 hectares of uncultivated land, arable land and olive groves.
Immediate investigations carried out by the Foresters made it possible to trace the person responsible, still in the area, who had set fire to the dry spontaneous vegetation close to a dry stone wall and then, with a favorable wind, the outbreak had invaded the land behind, with the risk of further propagation.
The Carabinieri then proceeded to refer the arsonist, a 51-year-old man, to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Lecce, in a state of freedom, charging him with the crime of negligent arson, referred to in art. 423, paragraph 2, of the Penal Code, which carries a prison sentence of 3 to 7 years.
The flames, however, were put out thanks to the intervention of the civil protection teams and the fire brigade.
Since 15 June, the date of activation of the period of serious danger for forest fires, as decreed by the Puglia Region, the Forestry Carabinieri have intensified and organized patrol services with the aim of preventing and repressing crimes.
Particular attention is paid to the most sensitive areas, such as that of Santa Cesarea Terme, whose extensions of pine forest and Mediterranean scrub have been repeatedly damaged in recent years, most recently last October, when, even after the season was over, the conditions of prolonged drought have favored dangerous fires near the town, with damage to the vegetation and the houses themselves.
