Arsonist was squatter facing eviction, say Dénia police

TWO HOUSE fires in as many days led to dozens of Dénia residents being evacuated – the third disaster of this type in less than a month.

And one of the infernos turned out to have been started deliberately by a squatter who knew she was about to be evicted.

Around 70 residents in a block on the central C/ Marquesado had to flee their homes when a fourth-storey apartment went up in flames at around 10.00 on Sunday, and firefighters were forced to enter the building to rescue an elderly and disabled woman on the top floor.

A mother and daughter were inside the flat that caught fire, and their lounge is reported to have been burnt to a crisp.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known.

In a separate incident the following day, firefighters were called out at around 17.00 to the Mirador urbanisation in the La Pedrera district after one of the villas burst into flames.

The urbanisation had previously been repossessed en bloc by a bank after the developer defaulted on a loan, but most of the homes are occupied.

It is not clear whether the occupants are tenants, squatters, owners or a mixture of all three. The woman in the house which caught fire is believed to be a squatter, and had been served an eviction order, police say.

She is believed to have set light to it once she found out she had to leave.

National Police caught her when she attempted to return to the property soon after she and another 20 or so residents were evacuated.

In December, a block on the central C/ Marqués de Campo went up like a tinderbox after the wall insulation caught light, but miraculously, nobody was hurt.

Nearly 100 residents evacuated in spate of house fires , one of which was deliberately started