Two Seprona agents get out of an all-terrain vehicle in the middle of the forest. They take out a bulky briefcase and leave it on the ground. Inside, magnets, jars, tweezers and even hairspray, elements necessary to find clues. Little by little, the scene begins to fill with yellow cones marking each piece of evidence. However, here they are not looking for a corpse, but for the causes that caused a fire. “A forest fire is investigated as if it were a murder,” says Daniel Barturen, lieutenant of the desertification group of the Central Operative Unit (Ucoma) of the Civil Guard. This is how the group that is in charge of the most complex investigations into fires in Spain works —just like the CSI in the crime television series—and makes estimates of damages: in a fire that burned 5,000 hectares in Granada in 2022, the bill amounts to 800 million.
When a fire breaks out, the first thing to do is to manage the emergency and protect the population: road closures, demarcation of areas, evacuation of homes if necessary. In larger fires, a command centre is set up and a person responsible for the emergency is appointed. When this person considers it safe, the investigation begins. In more complex cases (such as those affecting natural parks or burning many hectares) the help of Ucoma specialists is usually required.
Back in Madrid —at the Seprona headquarters—, Barturen explains his work. “In a homicide, we have the autopsy that tells us if it was a natural or violent death. The same thing happens with fires, the first thing is to determine the area where the fire started and look for the possible cause, human or natural.” How is it done? “We look for the traces left by the fire as it advances based on the wind, the slope and a series of marks it makes on the rocks and trees. With that we know where the fire advanced, and we follow the opposite path until we find the area of ignition. And there we have to look for indicators of activity that could have started the flames.”
Sergeant Gema Armero, from the same group, opens the briefcase next to her: “First we look at the weather conditions such as temperature and humidity. Then, every time we find evidence, we mark it with a yellow witness, a number and a metric scale. The jars are used to take samples, which we collect with these tweezers. We use the rope to mark the area,” she says. “The magnet helps us find possible mechanical points, such as shrapnel that can be thrown by the train tracks. When there are remains of an incendiary device, such as a roll of newspaper, the shape of the fire sticks to the paper, and we use the lacquer to fix it and take it as evidence,” she adds.
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With this method, in recent years they have participated in the fires in Asturias (2023) – where the more than 400 outbreaks made the investigation very difficult -, in Tenerife (2023), in Granada (2022) or from Galicia (2021 and 2022). “In the case of Lugo and Ourense, we had to carry out a complex operation to find the culprits, with surveillance and a control device similar to that of an anti-drug operation,” says Barturen. “We discovered that it was a group of friends who were dedicated to setting fires without any specific motivation other than enjoying it. Thanks to the operation, there came a time when we knew they were going to burn and we were able to catch them just setting a fire,” he continues.
In another of the cases mentioned, that of Granada, which destroyed some 5,000 hectares of forest in the municipality of The Guajaresthe investigations led to the arrest last year of a former forest firefighter as the alleged perpetrator. “We had to collaborate with several Seprona units to achieve this, but in the end we were able to locate him without a doubt in the area of ignition,” reveals Armero. To find this location, they sometimes use satellite images provided by the European Copernicus service, which show thermal anomalies several times a day.
Damage to the ecosystem
This fire shows another of the Civil Guard’s tasks: the preparation of reports that estimate the damage caused by this type of catastrophe. Alejandro Robles, from the Technical Investigation Unit of Ucoma, explains: “We go to the site just after the fire ends, and then a year later, to see how the area is recovering, if the vegetation is growing again, if the animals are returning…”. They evaluate two major parameters: on the one hand, what it cost to extinguish the fire and, on the other, the ecosystem services that have been lost.
“A forest helps capture carbon, prevents floods, protects against erosion, helps filter water that regenerates aquifers… If it burns, the soil goes into the rivers and muddies them, fills up the swamps, causes mortality of fish and other animals,” Robles continues. Gemma Prieto, from the same unit, adds: “In the case of Granada, we evaluated 21 ecosystem services (biodiversity, food production, hunting and fishing, water supply…), and we found that at least 18 had a high ecological value. We made our report based on this.”
The result is that the fire caused 235 million euros in damages in terms of restoration value (which includes extinguishing means and those for restoring the environment) and another 550 million euros in ecosystem services that have not been provided. Robles points out: “The restoration value is simpler, in the end it is about seeing how much the intervention of firefighters, planes and the Civil Guard costs, as well as the workers to plant trees. On the other hand, evaluating ecosystem services is something more novel, but essential to know what the real environmental damage is that has been produced.”
There is not always a culprit. According to provisional data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, so far in 2024 there have been more than 4,700 fire-related incidents that have burned 42,314 hectares of forest land. The human factor is behind 80% of the fires, whether intentional or through negligence. Another 5% are due to natural causes, mainly lightning. And the remaining 15% are listed in the statistics as being of unknown origin.
According to data from the Ministry of the InteriorIn the case of intentional fires, an important factor is livestock interests and conflicts, although the category with the most weight in the statistics is “others”. As regards accidents and negligence, fires caused by “power lines” and cars, and “agricultural burning” stand out.
“The thermal anomalies detected by satellites help us to see where fires are repeated year after year, which is usually due to traditional use of fire. However, with climate change, conditions have changed and what was done before now creates a great danger. So we can make more preventive efforts in that area,” says Armero. Barturen concludes: “Many fires in isolated areas of Asturias go unnoticed. The anomalies help us to detect where more fires are occurring and fewer people are being arrested. We believe that the best prevention in this case is to avoid the feeling of impunity for those who burn.”
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