According to CNN, Milligan has known Clark for decades. In a recent encounter two weeks ago, the chief said that he came to his home.
“I said, ‘I want nothing to do with you, Forrest. Just go,’ ” Milligan told CNN. “He was being gentlemanly in the beginning, and turned and then swore at me, and turned and left and was quoting the Bible. Later, he came back and told me what a jerk I was and everyone was after him.”
Clark, he said, is an erratic, dangerous person whom Milligan flagged to federal and state officials on a regular basis. “If you don’t do something he’s going to kill somebody or burn something down,” he wrote in an email about Clark.
‘This Is A Monster’
“This is a monster,” Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer said on Aug. 8, NPR reported. “Who would go out with low humidity and high wind and the highest heat temperatures this time of the year and intentionally set the forest on fire?”On Aug. 10, firefighters fought a desperate battle to stop the Holy Fire from reaching homes as the blaze surged through the Cleveland National Forest above the city of Lake Elsinore and its surrounding communities. They were trying to keep the flames from devouring neighborhoods and taking lives, as gigantic fires still burning in Northern California have already done.
“Our main focus this afternoon was getting everyone out safely,” said Thanh Nguyen, a spokesman for the crews battling the Holy Fire.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Orange and Riverside counties because the fire threatened thousands of homes. The proclamation directs state agencies to provide help to local governments.
Clark is now being held on $1 million bail.