Chile: Ex-firefighter accused of being the author of the fire that left 137 dead is arrested

On Monday, Chilean police arrested a former firefighter who is accused of being one of the perpetrators of the fire that killed 137 people and destroyed thousands of homes on Feb. 2 in the tourist town of Viña del Mar.

Identified as Elías Salazar, the 39-year-old man was a volunteer firefighter in the past. In addition, AFP recalls, he also served as an official of the state-run National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred).

Salazar is not the only person detained in connection with the incident. Earlier, another firefighter and a forestry employee were also arrested, both accused of starting the fire.

However, Salazar is "the material author," as explained by Guillermo Gálvez, head of the Investigative Police of the Valparaíso region.

"He is the material author. The day of the fire he participated and is also the author of one of the outbreaks that starts" the incident, he detailed, assuring that the fire could be motivated by the three suspects' fondness for "participating in emergencies."

"According to what he manifests, he likes to be a hero, participating and helping once emergencies occur," Gálvez maintained.

Elías Salazar is scheduled to appear in court this Tuesday to be formally charged with arson causing death, an event that, from the beginning, authorities considered to have been intentionally provoked.

On February 2, several fires broke out simultaneously around Viña del Mar, 110 kilometers northwest of Santiago.

According to investigations, the fire started with several simultaneous fire outbreaks in the vicinity of Lake Penuelas, in the Valparaiso region, 35 kilometers from Viña del Mar.

The heat, combined with the intense gusts of wind of that day, in the middle of the southern summer, quickly spread the flames which, according to official figures, caused 137 deaths and 16,000 people to be affected. This made the fire the second deadliest fire in the world in the 21st century,