4 Firefighters Dead in California Arson

The BBQ Pit
1

I have no clear understanding of bush fires. Never seen one, never want to see one. They are a routine hazard in California, like earthquakes. Why they hell would some fool start a bush fire?

Some arsonists are in it for the insurance money. Some are adrenaline junkies. I have a private theory that some just want to leave a mark on a huge and impersonal world. The desire to destroy is a kind of creative desire. But in California you ought to know better.

In any case, investigators say someone went to a vulnerable area at Oh-dark-hundred in the morning and lit a fire at the worst possible time and place. People had to evacuate in the early morning hours.

Four firefighters were caught by the fire so suddenly they could not get to their truck or put on their protective gear they are dead, another is badly burned. I cannot even imagine how the families are handling this news.

Authorities have recovered the arsonist’s beer bottles and (oddly) an empty tube of toothpaste. Police are offering US$100K for information on Prometheus junior. The charges will be murder, arson and perhaps littering. I would expect a quick arrest.

What the hell was going through this guy’s pointy little head?

One of the most dysfunctional of us manages to kill four of the best of us.

2

You forgot to provide a link.

3

Yeah, it sucks. And if the fire was started by an arsonist, that really sucks. But…

Thing is, California is gonna burn. Every year. It’s like being surprised by rain here in Seattle. California ecology guarantees wildfires, and invasive exotics like eucalyptus make wildfires even more likely. And the more you supress the fires, the more likely the next fire becomes, due to built up fuel. This is just part of life in Southern California, like earthquakes and freeway congestion.

4

The FBI has been called in, and Riverside County Sheriff’s are playing it very close to the chest. They want a Murder 1 conviction on this asshole. I can see the smoke from where I am sitting, and hear the water tankers flying overhead. The bad news now is that there are predicted high winds for the weekend, and the fire is real close to a forest that has been devastated by bark beetles, and thus full of dead trees.

5

Christ almighty, what an awful way to die. Those poor fire fighters . . .

6

And there’s no water source close enough to use those scooper planes to dump water on it from above, and the wind is so high that it’s too dangerous to fly even the planes that drop fire retardant. :frowning:

7

Paul says

The linked article says

They suggest the fire was deliberately set, but I didn’t see anyone say “This fire was deliberately set.” Is there any way this could be an accident? While still inexcusably, I can understand why some one might run away after accidentally starting such a fire.

8

I heard the Fire Chief say just that on NPR yesterday. I’ll try to quote it as best I can through my faulty memory: “Let me start this out by saying this was a deliberately set arson fire, and when someone dies as a result of arson, it’s murder.”

9

Bill Peters, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry, said Friday on ABC’s "Good Morning America that authorities “are certain because they came out with the cause fairly quickly … I think they’re going to hold the cause real close to the vest, if you will, because of the deaths.”

From FOXNews.
No winds right now, so the planes are flying. I think the quickest source of dippable water is Lake Perris, which is just over the ridge aways.

10

I’m glad to hear that. The news was reporting last night what I posted above. Pray the winds stay calm enough to allow them to continue.

11

I have a sister-in-law who lives on the last street (In Banning) just off of Highway 243 before it goes up into the San Jacinto’s…with horses and some cattle…not sure if she’s evacuated, but she hasn’t answered the phone, so we can only assume that she did.

As for the arsonists, I always picture 16 or 17 year olds with beer stolen out of daddy’s fridge, acting on a dare to do something this stupid. Thoughts and prayers for the firemen, working, injured or dead.

12

I heard the same report. In addition, they believe that the arsonist deliberately used the predicted direction of the Santa Ana winds, along with their predicted strength, so that the fire would cause the maximum damage. Of course that’s speculation, but if it’s true, this fucker is an animal.

13

One of the creepist things I’ve seen was a clip a few years back, from a pyromaniac who recorded his fires, complete with sound. From the way he was panting and gasping, he sounded like he was about to orgasm. I think that some people simply get off on setting fires, and don’t care about the consequences.

14

OG only knows, but if you want a look into how they think, you can read about the brother of a girl I went to high school with. John Orr Fire captain, arson investigator, arsonist.

15

That sucks. That sucks bad. As many have pointed out, it’s not really a suprise about the fire. The wildland-urban interface has been causing problems for mountain firefighters for years now. As these chuckleheads build more and bigger mcmansions higher up into the mountains, the more this kind of thing is going to happen.

What do you expect when you build your home, then surround it with flammable timbers in a place where fire is a necssary part of natural renewal?

I do hope they find this prick, and I hope they gas his ass.

16

Flags are flying at half-mast all over the state. My mom is the dispatcher for volunteer fire-fighters and first-responders 700 miles away on the other end of the state, but the distance doesn’t mean anything. The same thing could happen to any one of them with the next call-out. The known risks and the fire-feeding climate and the questionable decisions of where people decide to build doesn’t change the fact that brave men and women will run towards danger to save lives and property.

17

From what I understand of pyros, he very well could have been. shudder

18

Why? Ignorance. Malice. Take your pick.

Four more to be added to a plaque in Emmittsburg, which will bear too many names.

Requiescat in Pace, brothers.

19

Three years ago, when I lived in a little desert town in San Diego county, the Cedars Fire hit. One of the mountain resort towns, Julian, was evacuated down to us. Our school shut down for the week, and our superintendant asked all the faculty and staff to stay on and help the Red Cross, which we gladly did.

I still remember the Fire Chief’s descriptions when he came down to brief the evacuees. The fire department gets worried when vegetation moisture levels dip below 60%. Below 50%, the vegetation is dead. Local vegetation at the start of the fire was around 30%. Oak litter, the leaves, twigs, and acorns dropped to the forest floor, normally burns with flames about six inches high. At that point, the oak litter fires burned about four feet high.

They used backhoes to create firebreaks five hundred yards across, and the fire jumped it. Normally, he said, they see ignited twigs and branches of maybe a quarter inch diameter thrown into the air by the heat vortex. They had inch thick branches sucked into the air. Again, normally, very dry brush will spontaneously combust ten, maybe twenty, yards in front of the fire line. They had to fight brush spontaneously combusting more than fifty yards ahead of the fireline.

I saw what the Cedars Fire did to the mountains I drove through every time I visited my parents. Those scars won’t be gone for decades, if not centuries. Shortly before the Cedars Fire started, friend of mine, who ran a local day spa in town, was driving from Julian down to our town late at night. They saw a young man starting a fire at the side of the road. They and another car stopped. The other car called 911 and tried to stop the fire. My friend and her friend drove after the man when he took off and were able to report his license plate, which led to him being arrested.

What do you do when these terrifyingly awesome catastrophes loom even when the natural causes are frequent, yet people go about deliberately trying to start them? You know, I normally identify myself as a fuzzy-wuzzy, bleeding heart liberal, but Hammurabi’s answer for what to do with an arsonist seems pretty good these days.

20

We are 90 minutes away from this fire, and the smoke and ash has been so bad that my kids haven’t been able to play outside for two days. Only this morning has it seemed better.

My heart goes out to the families of those firefighters.

The fire at one point was headed for an area that has been hit with a bark beetle infestation, with all the dead trees still standing… :eek:

The reward for info leading to the conviction of Lowlife Asshole Murderer is now up to $500,000- more updates here.