Man charged with setting ‘Holy Fire’

A 51-year-old man who is accused of making the threat, “This place will burn,” for over three years has been arrested and charged with starting the so-called “Holy Fire,” causing nearly 10,000 acres to burn and 20,000 people to be placed under evacuation orders at Cleveland National Forest in Southern California.

The arrest was made as more than a dozen blazes across the state continue to endanger the lives of thousands, including hundreds of firefighters and first responders. One, the Mendocino Complex Fire, is the largest wildfire in California history. Yosemite National Park has been closed “indefinitely” because of smoke from another fire.

The Holy Fire, which started in the Holy Jim Canyon area, has been burning since Monday, with more than 600 firefighters assigned to fight it. Two firefighters have been treated for heat-related injuries.

Volunteer Fire Chief Mike Milligan said he has been flagging problems with suspect Forrest Gordon Clark over three years. He alerted the U.S. Forest Service that, “You have to do something or he’s gonna kill someone or burn this place down.”

Milligan received several texts from Clark last week threatening to start a fire.

“In a text he said place ‘is going to burn just like we planned’,” Milligan said, adding he reported it to the sheriff ’s office and again to the U.S. Forest Service. “Why the hell didn’t they respond. I reported this over and over again.”

The U.S. Forest Service could not be immediately reached for comment.

Clark was arrested late Tuesday on two counts of felony arson, one count of felony threat to terrorize and one count of misdemeanour resisting arrest, said Susan Schroeder, spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer said, “This shouldn’t be called the Holy Jim Fire, this should be called the Holy Hell Fire.”

“This is a monster. Who would go out with low humidity, and high wind and highest heat temperatures this time of year and intentionally set the forest on fire?” asked Spitzer during a news conference Wednesday.

Shane Sherwood with the Orange County Fire Authority told reporters that he could not comment on the reported text, saying the investigation was ongoing. But he said the evidence gathered led investigators to believe the fire was “intentional.”

He said they were still working through the evidence to determine how it was started.

Sherwood said no witnesses have come forward saying they saw Clark start the fire, but the area of origin is around his residence.