“I was enjoying the fire”: brigade members arrested the alleged person responsible for the incident in Tepozteco

Gabino Rodríguez, leader of Tejones Tepoztlán brigade, announced that they arrested the suspect responsible for the fire on the Tepozteco hill, located in Tepoztlán, Morelos.

In an interview with Carmen Aristegui on his radio program, Gabino Rodríguez said that they surprised this person, who was “completely high”, screaming and watching the fire unfold in the forest at the Los Corredores de Tepoztlán property.

The brigade denounced that despite having presented this subject to the legal officer, the authorities placed many bureaucratic obstacles to prosecute him, so they were given 48 hours to file a formal complaint with the Morelos Prosecutor's Office.

“Yes, in fact we held him (...) yesterday three times we had to go to Cuernavaca to be prosecuted; the legal officer of Tepoztlán did not want to attend and process and carry out his work so that he could be prosecuted immediately,” he said.

“I don't know why they don't feel the urgency of what is happening and twice they were going to let him go, twice; then they pressed again and with the pressure because they did all the paperwork that needs to be done to be able to process him and now he is in detention,” he said.

“He was taken yesterday at 6 or 7 in the afternoon, they went to the Public Prosecutor's Office in Cuernavaca and now they gave us 48 hours to report. How is it possible? We grabbed him in flagrante, they have the video of how he grabbed it and they still ask you a lot of evidence,” he said.

“He was stopped at the place where the fire started and we have videos (...) He was enjoying the fire and screaming. There he was grabbed, shocking, where the fire started,” he said, while noting that this guy was protesting that the brigades were trying to quell the fire.

“We ask that they refound him (in prison), prosecute him. It is not possible for such a person to generate disasters like what is happening here,” he emphasized.

On Wednesday morning, helicopters began to arrive that will launch water discharges to try to extinguish the fire that started on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 22 and that spread rapidly.

After numerous complaints through social networks, the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR) reported that 97 combatants were on the spot trying to extinguish the flames, which were sent by the same agency, as well as by the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas, the government of Morelos and Civil Protection of the Entity.

According to the agency, the fire is located in a place that is difficult to access, in addition to gusts of wind of about 15 kilometers per hour, which spreads the flames in the middle of the forest, so the fighters dug firebreaks.

The fire originated in an oak-pine forest around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the area known as Los Corredores and spread rapidly.

The governor of the entity, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, asked the inhabitants of the area to take the necessary precautions due to the intense smoke emitted by the fire:

“Brigadists and forest fighters are working to quell the fire in Tepoztlán. We ask citizens not to intervene, as the wind can fan the flames, making the situation even more dangerous. Because of the smoke in the environment we must take extreme precautions at home,” the president wrote on his social networks.

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