A sixty-year-old admitted to having started 20 wildfires between 2019 and 2022 in the same sector of southern Haute-Vienne and will be tried on January 13 in Limoges, the national gendarmerie said in a press release on Wednesday. According to a source familiar with the matter, this 68-year-old woman explained her behavior by “ill-being” and “boredom”.
The investigation began when 26 fires were recorded in early August in the Saint-Hilaire-les-Places, Ladignac-le-Long, La Meyze, Bussière-Galand, Flavignac and Les Cars sectors, “for more than one ten hectares of burnt vegetation”. The Limoges research brigade quickly turned to the criminal trail and, following the investigations, placed a 68-year-old woman residing in Haute-Vienne in police custody. The latter admitted having started 20 fires between 2019 and 2022 in these municipalities. Placed under judicial supervision, she is subject to an obligation of care.
Three suspected arsonists arrested in Haute-Vienne
In 2019, fires of the same type, “mainly started on the edge of the road near a forest”, had been observed in this same sector, according to the gendarmerie. This is the third suspected arsonist arrested in Haute-Vienne this summer. Last week, the police arrested a 55-year-old woman who admitted having caused eight fires in August in Couzeix, near Limoges.
She explained that she acted in particular “out of boredom, loving to watch the fire start before leaving the scene”. His trial is set for December 16. In addition, a man arrested by the gendarmerie and suspected of being the author of eight fires between June 12 and July 19 in Saint-Sulpice-les-Feuilles, in the north of the department, is currently imprisoned at the house of judgment of Limoges, awaiting trial.