The smoke cleared in the investigation on the fire of the forest of Chiberta in Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). A person was indeed arrested and was to be presented to the court after a judicial inquiry, said Friday, August 7, 2020 the public prosecutor of Bayonne. In a press release, the prosecutor's office announced the holding of a press conference on Friday to 18 hours of the prosecutor of the Republic of Bayonne, Jerome Bourrier, " in the light of new evidence revealed by the investigation [...], and the opening of a judicial investigation that day, with presentation of a person in question ".

No other information has filtered out in a first time on the profile of the person in question, nor on the accidental or criminal nature of the fire, even if the prosecution had established its "human origin" as early as last week. The fire spectacular of the forest of Chiberta, 270 hectares of pine forest in the heart of city at Anglet, were destroyed Thursday 167 hectares of vegetation, 5 houses and damaged 6 others, without casualties. Twenty people were placed by the hospital for poisoning smoke without severity. The mayor of Anglet Claude Olive had felt that a "human tragedy" had been avoided.

"there has been an intervention of the man"

In detailing the initial findings from the survey on " human origin ", the vice-prosecutor Caroline Parizel had said : "there has been no lightning or electrical wire that would have caused a spark. It is, therefore, a human action, which means that there has been an intervention of the man, but it can be a cigarette butt, or a broken bottle that would have been magnifying effect. "

Remained in the survey: "the most difficult ", according to the magistrate, to determine if the fire is of accidental origin or criminal, with a fire volunteer. The levies had been made for the purposes of analysis. The investigation has already determined a unique area of fire starting in the vicinity of the rugby stadium Orok Bat, in the edge of the forest of Chiberta.