The Associated Press
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Two men and a cattle ranch were charged with felonies on Friday on suspicion of recklessly starting a fire that has been burning for nearly two months in the central California wilderness.
The 375-square-mile fire was ignited July 4 by sparks from grinding equipment being used to repair a water pipe near Los Olivos in northern Santa Barbara County, authorities have said. The rugged terrain has complicated firefighters’ efforts, and 44 of them have been injured battling the flames.
Jose Jesus Cabrera, Santiago Iniguez Cervantes and Rancho La Laguna LLC were each charged with three counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and one count of recklessly causing a fire of a structure or forest.
The counts involve two firefighters who suffered minor injuries when their water-dropping helicopter crashed in July, and a driver who broke both legs last month when his truck, which was used to carry and pump out portable restrooms, plunged 200 feet down a mountainside as he headed to a fire camp.
Prosecutors also allege that the men and the ranch were careless with a flaming substance, which is a misdemeanor violation of health and safety codes, and that they failed to secure a “hot work” permit, which would be an infraction of county and state regulations.
Cabrera, 38, of Santa Ynez, and Cervantes, 46, of Santa Maria, each could face as many as nine years in state prison if convicted of all counts, according to a statement from the Santa Barbara County district attorney’s office. They were not in custody and were scheduled for arraignment Sept. 20 in Santa Maria, prosecutor Jerry N. Lulejian said.
The defendants also could be billed for the $114 million cost of fighting the fire, authorities said.
The men were working at the ranch when the fire erupted, said Robert Sanger, an attorney for Cabrera.
“We have two hard-working men who are out there on the Fourth of July in the heat and they’re trying to repair a water pipe so the cattle have a source of water,” Sanger said. “They take precautions. Despite their precautions ... a spark escapes farther than anybody imagines. A fire started.
“In my view, this is an accident; it’s not a crime, let alone a felony,” Sanger said.
There was no telephone listing for Cervantes or for the Los Olivos-area ranch, which Sanger said had not obtained an attorney in the case yet.
The fire was 95 percent contained Friday after burning through 240,207 acres in Los Padres National Forest. No homes have been destroyed and no communities were threatened Friday.
The fire was expected to be fully contained Tuesday, exactly two months after it began.