Vandals set fire to rubbish bins in Santa Rosa

Some residents of the Santa Rosa district of Alcoy were woken to the sound of fire engines early on Tuesday morning after the fire brigade was called out to extinguish two burning rubbish containers.

The first container burned at 1.50 am on Tuesday, January 1, in Calle Luis Braile causing damage to the façade of a nearby building. An hour later the fire brigade was alerted to a second rubbish bin fire on Calle Ibi.

Since Alcoy changed all its metal rubbish bins to ones made of plastic last year the fire brigade has been called out to extinguish 30 such fires which pose a greater threat than previous ones due to the plastic containers being flammable.

The city of Alcoy is working together with the local police to find the perpetrators of the fires which are estimated to have cost the city 30,000 euros. City councilman Jordi Martinez has warned that this expense would be passed on to the person or persons responsible for starting the fires.