A 26-year-old man has been arrested and charged with arson in the Thompson fireplace, which torched 3,789 acres within the Northern California city of Oroville in early July.
Spencer Grant Anderson, an Oroville resident, was arrested in Chico on Thursday. He was charged Monday with arson of an inhabited construction, arson of forest land and arson inflicting a number of buildings to burn, in accordance with the California Division of Forestry and Hearth Safety.
The fees got here after an intensive 50-day investigation by a crew of Cal Hearth investigators introduced in from across the state. At any given time, 4 to 6 investigators had Anderson below 24/7 surveillance whereas others carried out a forensic investigation on the intersection of Cherokee and Thompson Flat roads, the positioning the place the fireplace began, Cal Hearth mentioned.
Hours into the investigation, the crew concluded that the fireplace was possible brought on by a flaming object thrown from a Toyota sedan. By July 3, a day after the fireplace began, they linked the automotive to Anderson utilizing license plate readers.
After he was arrested, Anderson admitted that he had bought fireworks the day the fireplace began and drove to Cherokee Street to check one by throwing it out the window, Cal Hearth mentioned.
The hearth began on a “purple flag day” — when the potential for a fast-moving brush fireplace was extraordinarily excessive. The temperature was over 100, humidity was low, and winds had been blowing west to east.
The hearth traveled greater than 3.5 miles, destroying 13 houses and damaging 34 buildings.
Anderson might face 21 years in jail if convicted on all costs. He’s being held with out bail in Butte County Jail and can be again in court docket on Wednesday to set dates for his plea and pretrial hearings.
Oroville sits about 20 miles south of Paradise, the place the deadliest wildfire in California historical past, the Camp fireplace, killed 85 folks in 2018.
Tens of hundreds of Butte County residents had been positioned below necessary evacuation orders after the Thompson fireplace began on July 2, together with some who had beforehand misplaced houses within the Camp fireplace.
