By Gillian Flaccus
The Associated Press
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Federal authorities announced Tuesday they have charged eight people and two businesses with negligent and illegal activity that allegedly caused nine wildfires that together burned across hundreds of thousands of acres around California.
The announcement by the U.S. Attorney’s office marked the end of investigations that in some cases dated back to 2002 and covered wildfires in at least three different national forests.
None of the cases alleges arson, and all but one defendant face misdemeanor counts, said Kathy Good, spokeswoman for Los Padres National Forest. One homeless man faces two felony counts for allegedly starting two different fires.
“It’s a reminder, given that we’re in this terrible fire season, that people need to be extremely careful, abide by the rules or run the risk of something like this happening to them,” Good said.
The charges cover wildfires with names that many Californians will recognize, including the 2006 Day Fire, which blackened more than 163,000 acres in Los Padres National Forest; the Piru Fire, which charred 63,000 acres north of Fillmore in 2003; and a small blaze that later merged with the Old Fire during Southern California’s devastating wildfire season in 2003.
The U.S. Forest Service assigned a team of six agents to work on solving the cases, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office. He said it was not unusual for wildfire investigations to take months, or even years. The arrest Monday of a transient wanted for allegedly starting two of the fires capped the investigation and prompted officials to make the charges public, he said.
“It takes a long time to investigate,” he said. “They’re very, very complicated cases.”
Steven Emory Butcher, a 48-year-old transient, was arrested Monday after being indicted last week on eight charges, including two felony counts of starting fires that emitted embers that caused the 2006 Day Fire and the 2002 Ellis Fire, both in Piru Canyon.
The Day Fire burned for a month and cost $78 million to suppress.
Butcher is being held without bond and could face up to 13 years in prison if convicted of all charges, Mrozek said.
The remaining eight defendants face a maximum of six months in jail if convicted and are free on bond, he said.
One of those defendants is 25-year-old Jeremiah Hope of Riverside. He faces two misdemeanor counts of causing national forest lands to burn and placing a vehicle in a dangerous place.
Prosecutors allege that Hope drove his truck into a dry, grassy area in the San Bernardino National Forest to watch the Old Fire burning in 2003, even though the area was banned to motorized vehicles. Authorities say sparks from Hope’s truck set off the Playground Fire, which later merged with the Old Fire and together burned more than 90,000 acres.
Others charged include a woman who started a signal fire in 2004 after getting lost in Los Padres National Forest; a construction worker who used a gas-powered circular saw that threw off sparks during a project on national forest land; a man who used a tractor that was not fitted with a spark arrester; and a camper who started an illegal campfire.
Two companies, Mendez Concrete Co. and The Best Demolition and Recycling Co., were also charged for activities that allegedly started blazes.