FBI Investigates As Arson Linked To California Wildfires
Posted October 24, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Wildfires that have ravaged Southern California for several days could be the product of arson.
“FBI Los Angeles is assisting Orange County fire officials and sheriff’s office in an ongoing investigation into the source of some of the fires,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.
A man accused of setting a small brush fire in a rural area of the San Bernardino Mountains was booked Wednesday, but San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said authorities don’t know if he’s connected to any of the region’s wildfires.
The FBI also corrected earlier reports that a house was searched in connection with the ongoing investigation.
In their fourth day, the fires are blamed for destroying at least 1,500 homes and causing at least 500,000 people to flee the area in what’s being called the largest mass evacuation in the state’s history.
The raging wildfires have killed three people and forced more than one million others from their homes. At least 1,200 homes were damaged in San Diego County alone, a number that’s expected to rise just south of Orange County.
