The Generalitat, Catalonia's regional government, is investigating the company employing the worker suspected of starting the Les Gavarres wildfire, after a maintenance tool used near the GI-660 road allegedly sent sparks into dry roadside vegetation.

For residents in La Bisbal d'Empordà and nearby Costa Brava municipalities, the immediate consequence was confinement orders and a large fire that scorched about 2,200 hectares of the Les Gavarres massif, reopening questions over how high-risk maintenance work is authorised during periods of very high fire danger.

"The Generalitat is investigating the company of the operator who caused the Les Gavarres fire," according to agency reporting cited by 20minutos and Infobae on Friday, 4 July.

According to Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan regional police, a man was detained on Friday in connection with the fire declared in the municipal area of La Bisbal d'Empordà, in Girona province. Police said the main line of inquiry is that the fire began while he was carrying out work with a radial saw near a road, an activity that was expressly banned because of the high wildfire risk.

COPE, citing the Mossos, reported that the force's Environmental Division has taken charge of the investigation alongside the Agents Rurals, Catalonia's rural officers, who are gathering evidence and witness statements to establish the exact point where the fire started and its cause. That clarifies the split in responsibilities: the Mossos and Agents Rurals are investigating the origin of the fire itself, while the Generalitat is examining the role of the contractor linked to the work.

Roadside sign work on the GI-660 is central to the case

Infobae reported that the detained worker was allegedly using a radial saw to fit a road sign on the GI-660 when the incident happened. The report said the sparks produced by cutting metal were enough to ignite the dry vegetation on the road verge, and that this type of work had been specifically prohibited at that time.

The same report said the fire spread quickly because of strong tramontana winds. It added that several municipalities on the Costa Brava were confined as the blaze advanced.

  • The suspected ignition point was near the GI-660 road.
  • The tool identified in the reports was a radial saw used for cutting metal.
  • The worker was detained on Friday, 3 July, according to Mossos d'Esquadra.
  • The area burned was reported at about 2,200 hectares in the source material provided for this article.

For people living near forest edges, roadside properties or urbanisations in the area, the case matters because the alleged ignition source was not lightning or an uncontrolled bonfire, but routine maintenance work carried out in extreme summer conditions. That has direct implications for roadworks, agricultural jobs and contractor activity during high-risk periods.

Police and rural officers are examining whether banned work caused the blaze

COPE reported that the authorities had reminded the public that this type of task was fully suspended because of the very high fire danger affecting the region. The outlet said the working hypothesis is that the blaze may have been caused by serious imprudence, though that remains under investigation.

"These works, which generate sparks and a high risk of ignition, are expressly prohibited in the current situation," COPE reported, citing the first information released by the Mossos.

Infobae's account of the tool's fire risk said a radial saw is a portable electric tool used to cut or grind hard materials such as metal, concrete or stone, and that its disc can generate a shower of incandescent sparks at very high speed. That report linked the danger directly to the dry roadside vegetation present on the day of the fire.

The source material supplied does not include a direct public statement from the Generalitat setting out possible sanctions or the terms of the contractor's agreement. It confirms only that the regional government is investigating the company connected to the operator, while the Mossos and Agents Rurals continue to investigate the cause and sequence of events.

The most concrete known fact for residents is that the alleged source of the fire was maintenance work near the GI-660 during a period when spark-producing activity was banned, and that both the worker's actions and the contractor's role are now under separate scrutiny by the police and the Generalitat.

Reported by Source Text Link, Por Noelia Tabanera Agregar Infobae en Agrega Infobae a tus medios preferidos en Google, Por Newsroom Infobae Agregar Infobae en Agrega Infobae a tus medios preferidos en Google, 20minutos |, EFE, Yolanda Bernal, catalannews.com, Redacción, Eva Batlle, Tony Di Marino, euronews.com, Eva Batlle, elperiodico.com, lavanguardia.com, 7minutos.es, Quim Bertomeu, Aniol Costa-Pau, Albert Llimós, democrata.es, apdnoticies.com.