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The Guardia Urbana, Barcelona's city police, have arrested a man in connection with a spectacular wildfire that raged early this afternoon above the city in a vegetation-covered area on Montjuïc mountain, as ElCaso.cat can inform. A city police patrol was able to intercept the man in the area where he lives, and he was arrested.

Homeless man lives in the area of the fire

The person arrested is a homeless man who lives rough in this vegetation-clad part of one of Barcelona's emblematic large parks, next to Avinguda de Miramar at the seaward end of the mountain. There are several areas in the Montjuïc mountain area where people live in precarious shacks and tents, municipal sources confirm.

The man was transferred to police premises while a dozen Barcelona firefighters, assisted by two aerial units of the Generalitat firefighters, were still working to control and extinguish the flames. If it is confirmed that the man arrested by the police is responsible for the fire, with an investigation to be carried out, provisionally, by the city police and the Mossos d'Esquadra, he could be accused of arson. Fortunately, although the fire burnt a large area of scrub, and looked spectacular from the city below, there were no injuries.

 

Firefighters douse the flames 


Nine fire crews from the Barcelona fire department were deployed early this Tuesday afternoon to combat a brush fire that started below Montjuïc Castle in Barcelona. Two fire service helicopters also took part in the operation, in addition to the Guardia Urbana. A large column of smoke from the fire, located beside Avinguda Miramar at the seaward of one of Barcelona's landmark mountains, could be seen from different parts of the city and generated many images, shared on social media, when the smoke, of a worrying black colour, rose above the city's "magic mountain", home of parks, museums and the Olympic stadium.