Arrested in the Plaza de los Infantes the alleged container 'arsonist'

The Urban Guard of Tarragona arrested last Saturday the alleged perpetrator of the long list of fires in containers in the city. It was in the Plaça dels Infants, at two in the morning, after the individual had supposedly set fire to eight containers in a single night.

The police got hold of him thanks to the description of a witness and a surveillance camera that was inside a portal. The Guàrdia Urbana suspects that the young man – of whom no further details are known – would have been responsible for the containers burned in the last month.

The police had been after him for a long time. Even a special device had been designed to stop it red-handed. From plainclothes guards in squares and streets where there were containers, to identification of groups of young people, through the viewing of video surveillance cameras. Finally, this weekend came the arrest.

During the night of Saturday, a total of eight containers were burneddivided between the city center and the Campclar neighborhood. The first fire occurred at 11:38 p.m. in Antoni Rovira i Virgili street. From then on, it was non-stop. The firefighters couldn't keep up. Containers were burned almost simultaneously on Avenida Ramón y Cajal and on Calle Riu Onyar, in Campclar, which made one suspect that the detainee would not act alone. Riu Llobregat street or Rambla de Ponent were other locations chosen to set fire to containers.

A few minutes after midnight, a paper container was burned in Jaume I street and, later, another in Pons d'Icart street, in front of the El Terrat restaurant.

During that night, a witness to the events contacted the Guàrdia Urbana to describe the alleged perpetrator of the fires. After a while, a patrol identified an individual in the Plaza de los InfantesIt matched the witness's description. On the other hand, and almost at the same time, another patrol reported that a security camera, located inside a doorway on Jaume I street, had captured images of the incendiary. It is then, five minutes before two in the morning, when the arrest is made.

“We are studying the images to be able to impute the eight fires to him. We will also try to relate it to the rest of the proceedings that we have open, since the same has been used operation mode», explains the Councilor for Citizen Security of the Tarragona City Council, Cristina Guzmán. The alleged perpetrators have almost always chosen to burn the paper and cardboard containers, since they are the ones that catch fire first. No more arrests are ruled out in the coming days.

200,000 euros spent

From the beginning of the year until today, the Tarragona City Council has spent 200,000 euros to deal with the burned containers and the repair of others that were not so affected. It should be remembered that replacing one of these containers costs around 2,500 euros.