The mystery of the 'mountain' of thousands of cigarette lighters dumped on tinder-dry land on the Costa del Sol

Thousands of lighters filled with flammable gas, together with their associated cardboard and plastic packaging, have been found dumped in an open field surrounded by vegetation, much of it already tinder dry due temperatures of over 30C. Quite literally, a ticking time bomb that someone left to its fate on the municipal boundary between Torremolinos and Malaga.

Forest rangers assigned to the area went to the dumping site, which was described as a ‘mountain of lighters’. The first thing they had to do was to correctly locate the dangerous items and, once the illegal dump was geolocated, it was clear that it was on Malaga’s land by a few metres.

The close collaboration protocol between the two councils was activated, and the relevant teams and machinery - in this case from Malaga - promptly arrived to remove the dangerous materials. The next step, which is already in progress, is to determine where the lighters came from and the person responsible, as this could have had serious consequences, such as causing a fire with major consequences.

"Given its nature, the collaboration between the municipalities of Torremolinos and Malaga, through our forestry rangers, has been essential to remove this illegal and dangerous waste,” the mayor of Torremolinos Margarita del Cid said.

"The plot is completely cleared now and we will continue to work to determine who is responsible," she wrote on her social media accounts.