Wildfire springs up in LA canyons, forces out 82,500
LOS ANGELES — A new wildfire spread Tuesday at a staggering pace in every direction through drought parched canyons east of Los Angeles, growing to 14 square miles in a matter of hours and forcing the evacuation of more than 82,000 of people from mountain communities.
The blaze in Cajon Pass caused serious problems for a swath of mountain communities. About 82,500 people from some 34,500 homes were under mandatory evacuation orders, San Bernardino County fire spokesman Eric Sherwin said. Some structures had already burned, but it wasn’t yet clear whether they were homes.
As that fire surged, a major blaze north of San Francisco was fading, and some 4,000 people in the town of Clearlake were allowed to return home.
Their relief, however, was tempered with anger at a man who authorities believe set the blaze that wiped out several blocks of a small town over the weekend along with 16 smaller fires dating back to last summer.
Investigators in Northern California said Tuesday they had been building a case against the suspected arsonist, 40-year-old construction worker Damin Anthony Pashilk of Clearlake, for more than a year but did not have enough evidence to make an arrest until the weekend blaze ripped through Lower Lake.
The fire destroyed 175 homes, Main Street businesses and other structures in the working-class town.
Nearly a decade ago, Pashilk was an inmate firefighter while serving time on drug possession and firearms convictions, according to California Department of Corrections spokesman Vicky Waters. He was completing a five-year sentence when he was assigned to fight wildfires for four months in 2007.
Neither the California Department of Forestry, which led the investigation that resulted in Pashilk’s arrest Monday, nor the Lake County sheriff or district attorney would discuss what led authorities to him.
An attorney listed as representing Pashilk did not return a call requesting comment. Information for this article was contributed by Kristin J. Bender, Don Thompson and Robert Jablon of The Associated Press.