California Man Arrested for Allegedly Starting 2 Fires

Flames grow as firefighters set a backfire on the eastern front of the Park Fire near Chico, Calif., on July 28, 2024. David McNew/Getty Images

Cal Fire law enforcement deputies apprehended a suspect Oct. 19 who is allegedly responsible for starting fires along Highway 162 in Butte County, about 70 miles north of Sacramento in Northern California.

Gary Kevin Fuller, of Oroville, was arrested and charged with two separate counts of arson. He was in custody as of Oct. 21, and his bail was set at $150,000, a spokesperson for the Butte County jail told The Epoch Times.

Cal Fire responded to a report of a brush fire near Arbol Avenue on Oct. 19 in an unincorporated part of Butte County and quickly put out the blaze.

Witnesses told officials about an arson suspect and provided a description of the individual.

About an hour-and-a-half later, at a location 1.5 miles away, another vegetation fire was reported.

California’s terrain is especially susceptible to quick-spreading vegetation fires this year, according to the state’s fire agency, because vegetation growth is heavy following a wet spring.

A witness gave information that connected the suspect from the first fire with the second incident.

Shortly after, Butte County Sheriff’s deputies recognized a suspicious person who fit the description of the suspect and detained Fuller until Cal Fire investigators arrived.

Evidence at the scene and on the suspect was used to determine probable cause, said authorities, and Fuller was ultimately arrested and booked on arson charges.

The fire agency has arrested at least 110 people for arson so far in 2024, on pace to top the 111 arrested last year but a drop from the 162 arrested in 2022.

Incidents spiked starting in 2020 after averaging closer to 70 for the five years prior.

Arson incidents are responsible for approximately 11 percent of all wildfires statewide, according to Cal Fire data.

Other incidents responsible for significant blazes in recent months include the Park Fire—which was allegedly started by Ronnie Dean Stout II near Chico.

The 42-year-old was arrested and charged with igniting the fire by pushing a burning vehicle into a dry gully. Stout pleaded not guilty, and the case is still pending.

A conflagration known as the Line Fire—which burned acreage in San Bernardino County—is also attributed to arson.

Justin Wayne Halstenberg was arrested in September and charged with 11 counts of arson and other crimes for his alleged role in starting the fire. He pleaded not guilty, and is being held in custody with no bail. The case is ongoing.

The El Dorado Fire—which began in 2020 when a gender-reveal party pyrotechnic display went wrong—also led to charges after the 22,000-acre inferno killed a firefighter and destroyed 10 structures.

At least eight fires are currently burning in the state, with resources focused on blazes in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Shasta, Alameda, and Kern counties, among others.

Annually, about 7,000 wildfires impact California, with nearly 1.3 million acres burned, according to Cal Fire, based on five-year averages.

Billions of dollars in losses due to wildfires since 2016 are impacting the state’s housing industry and upending the insurance market—with homeowners and renters facing what some are calling a “crisis of both affordability and availability.”