where is the investigation?

Between September and October 2024, a farm in Romenay (Saône-et-Loire) was affected by three fires. The Mâcon public prosecutor’s office quickly identified a person suspected of having committed these acts. But several months later, the investigation has still not been completed.

Tuesday October 8, 2024, it was 9:15 p.m. when around twenty firefighters were mobilized to go to the town of Romenay, where a 1,800 m² farm was engulfed in fire. Sdis worked all night, as well as the next day, to put out the flames. No casualties were reported, but a firefighter was injured during the intervention. Nearly 1,000 tonnes of fodder went up in smoke.

A farm victim of a fire, some could see this as an accident that frequently happens on this type of operation. However, this is the third fire on this farm… In three weeks!

READ ALSO: The work of an arsonist? A farm hit by three fires in three weeks, the favored criminal trail

An investigation is then opened and the Louhans gendarmerie assures to take “this phenomenon seriously.” The criminal trail is quickly favored by the police. The expert’s report concerning the first fire also went in this direction: it was not an accident.

Saône-et-Loire has had to deal with repeated fires affecting a farm in the past. A few months earlier, Simandre, a town only about twenty kilometers from Romenay, had experienced many adventures. All the farms in the village had been destroyed in fires. The person responsible, a former local firefighter, was arrested and jailed.

READ ALSO: “I destroyed everything, my family, my friends”: the arsonist firefighter from Simandre sentenced to 7 years in prison

When we learned a few weeks later that a farm had also been the victim of several fires, a question arose: was there a link between the events of Simandre and Romenay? But the gendarmerie is categorical.

There is no connection, we are not at all on the same portage.

On November 28, France 3 Bourgogne contacted the Mâcon public prosecutor’s office to find out more about this case. They claim to have made good progress in their investigation.

The investigation allowed us to identify a person likely to have committed these acts.

Anne-Lise Furtoss

Public Prosecutor of Mâcon

But three years later, it seems that the person responsible is still on the run. For its part, the Louhans gendarmerie affirms that the investigation will be completed “in the next three to four months.”

The series of fires in Simandre had not been without consequences within the village. The mayor of the town even spoke of a “climate of psychosis on the part of the residents, because the fires are often close to homes, and there is also anger from the agricultural world.”

Is the atmosphere also tense in Romenay? Not really, according to Mayor Pascal Debost. “In the village, we don’t talk about it more than that, even the other operators”he says.

Christophe Ferrand runs a farm a few kilometers from the farm that was the victim of this series of fires. The subject was obviously put on the table with his colleagues in the sector, but he does not consider his exploitation in danger. “There was no psychosis. We don’t do any more rounds. We pay attention as we do all the time. In these During these periods, we perhaps pay more attention to what is happening, if someone seems suspicious.”

Same story from the farm in Bresse, which has nevertheless followed recent events carefully. “I said to myself that three incidents sounds like a settling of scores. We are a lot more vigilant, but that’s because people have already bothered us in the past. We do more rounds, and there are dogs to dissuade. There are only three hours in the day when the operation is not monitored, otherwise we monitor almost constantly.”

It remains to be seen when the police will get their hands on the person responsible for the fires in Romenay. Contacted, the Mâcon public prosecutor’s office has not yet responded to our requests.