Series of fires in Romont: three minors held and confessing

Three minors have been detained by the Fribourg police and have admitted, to varying degrees, responsibility for the series of fires that has hit Romont since June. They are a sixteen-year-old Ukrainian national living in the region and two fifteen-year-old Swiss girls, one resident locally and the other in the canton of Vaud.

The latest incident dates from Friday evening. At around 9.30pm the cantonal police operations and alarm centre received a report of a fire at the roadside in rue du Château, not far from the cemetery. Firefighters from the South Battalion and several patrols were sent to the scene. When the emergency services arrived the flames had already been partly brought under control by a driver from the Fribourg public transport company; the firefighters completed the work. What had burned was refuse left on the ground, and the fire had spread to an embankment and a tree stump. Nobody was hurt.

Five incidents since 21 June

The investigation opened that same evening quickly led to the identification of the three suspects. The following day, Saturday 15 August, criminal police investigators detained them and placed them under provisional arrest.

The sequence reconstructed begins on 21 June with a fire starting at the primary school. Three days later the authorities found traces of an attempted fire at the Tour Boyer public toilets, where a blaze did break out on 28 June. Two days after that the flames reached the Avoines gymnasium. The most recent case is last Friday's roadside fire.

Investigations continue in order to establish precisely how each incident unfolded and the degree of responsibility of each suspect. The three will be referred to the juvenile criminal court, the body competent to take the proceedings forward.