AN ARSONIST who set fire to a used tyre plant and caused a health and environmental emergency in the province of Toledo has been arrested, but released with charges pending trial.
Javier M.P., 52, worked in tyre recycling and it is thought his having ignited the plant in Seseña was a deliberate act of vandalism rather than an erroneous decision.
He started the blaze in four places, causing clouds of toxic smoke from the 88,000 tonnes of rubber to fill the air for nearly a month.
Around 30% of the plant – which turned out to be illegal – spread into the boundaries of the town of Valdemoro (Madrid), meaning the inferno and air-pollution affected two of Spain's autonomously-governed regions and two provinces.
The part in Valdemoro covered the equivalent of 12 football pitches, and another 28 football pitches' worth of burning heaps of tyres spilled into neighbouring Seseña.
It took three weeks for the flames to extinguish themselves since, with a fire of this nature, once it is under control, the only possible course of action is to allow it to burn itself out.
And the smoke did not clear for another week – in fact, it could even be clearly seen, and smelt, from the central Gran Vía boulevard in the city of Madrid.
Residents were unable to leave their homes or open their windows or doors for several days, and schools were shut.
It was not known at the time whether the fire was deliberate, but in the year and two weeks since it broke out, police have been on the trail of the occupants of a vehicle caught on CCTV close to the plot, which included seeking telephone call and text message data.
The inferno uncovered one of Europe's largest tyre waste plants and one that was also illegal.
Details from residents in the El Quiñón urbanisation near Seseña were key in ascertaining that the plant should never have been set up because of its danger to health and the atmosphere.
