S.F. man arrested in Klamathon blaze that killed one

Authorities arrested a 32year-old San Francisco man Thursday on suspicion of starting last month’s 38,008-acre Klamathon Fire, which killed one person and forced thousands to evacuate a wide-ranging area that stretched from Yreka (Siskiyou County) to Oregon.

John Colin Eagle Skoda was booked into Siskiyou County Jail on five felony counts of recklessly causing a fire and involuntary manslaughter, plus two fire-related misdemeanors.

The fire started July 5, authorities said, when Skoda lit a debris fire on a friend’s property southwest of the Klamath River near the small town of Hornbrook. After spreading to a tree, the fire jumped the river and raced into nearby hills.

“He was the one who called 911,” said Siskiyou County

District Attorney J. Kirk Andrus.

By then, however, the blaze was raging. It destroyed 35 homes and 48 other structures, and killed 72-year-old Hornbrook resident John Karl Bermel. The inferno forced the temporary shutdown of Interstate 5 before firefighters brought it under control more than a week later.

Suzi Brady, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said her agency’s investigators figured early on that Skoda was the man responsible for the fire, “but with that fire being so large, they wanted to dot the i’s and cross the t’s before making an arrest.”

Skoda drove to Siskiyou County and turned himself in to Cal Fire investigators on Thursday, Brady said. He was being held in Siskiyou County Jail.