People cause of most wildfires

LOS ANGELES — In the summer of 1965, Johnny Cash was living in the wilderness of Southern California when — possibly high on drugs — he sparked a wildfire with his overheated truck that blazed through more than 500 acres and threatened endangered condors.

When asked by a judge if he started the fire, he said, “my truck did, and it’s dead, so you can’t question it.” (Cash ended up settling the case for $82,000, or about a half a million in today’s dollars.)

California is experiencing its worst fire season in memory, with 1 million acres burned so far this year, more than twice the amount in the same period last year — and with each new blaze Californians are asking themselves: How did this happen?

The answer, in Cash’s time and now, is that destructive wildfires nearly always begin with a human, either intentionally or by mistake. There are endless ways people start fires — a discarded cigarette, a child playing with matches, a campfire, fireworks, a car accident.

This year, even as firefighters battle one blaze after another across the state, investigators are already finding answers for how some of the fires started.

One began with a spark from a flat tire. Another when someone hammered a fence post amid dry vegetation. Still another was allegedly ignited by a conspiracy-minded recluse who had sent a text message to a local firefighter warning the place “is going to burn.” The suspect, Forrest Gordon Clark, is being held on $1 million bail and faces the possibility of life in prison after being charged with setting the Holy Fire in Cleveland National Forest in Southern California.