Article 352 of the Criminal Code

What Article 352 of the Criminal Code punishes

Article 352 defines the offence of forest fire-setting, punishing those who set fire to woodland or forested areas. It is an offence of particular practical importance in Spain given the high number of fires that affect the country's territory every year, many of them started deliberately. The provision distinguishes two scenarios: where the forest fire creates no danger to human life or physical integrity, the base penalty of this article applies; where that danger does exist, the conduct is punished under the offence of fire endangering people in Article 351, although the fine set out in this Article 352 is applied in every case in addition.

The protected legal interest combines collective safety with the protection of the environment and natural heritage, given the severity of the ecological, economic and landscape damage a forest fire can cause, with effects that sometimes last for decades on the affected land.

Penalty

The penalty is one to five years in prison and a fine of twelve to eighteen months. If the forest fire also created a danger to human life or physical integrity, the penalty of Article 351 applies (ten to twenty years in prison, with the possibility of a one-degree reduction), with the fine of twelve to twenty-four months specifically set for this aggravated scenario applying in every case.

Common scenarios

This offence arises in fires deliberately started in woodland, pine forests or forested areas, whether out of revenge, to facilitate the rezoning of land for development, through extreme negligence in failing to control a fire started for another purpose (stubble burning, bonfires), or by arsonists with no identifiable economic motive. It also covers fires that, starting on non-forested land, spread and seriously affect neighbouring forested areas.

Defense strategy

Defending these cases requires a very detailed expert analysis of the fire's origin, since a significant share of forest fires have accidental or negligent causes —a cigarette butt, a spark from farm machinery, a power line— that can be mistaken for a deliberate origin if the forensic investigation is not sufficiently rigorous. It is essential to review the circumstantial evidence used to attribute authorship, which is often indirect in this type of offence, and to assess whether there was actually a danger to human life —which triggers the much harsher penalties of Article 351— or whether, instead, the fire affected an unpopulated area with no real risk to anyone.