Burning desires
Bizarre motives in Western wildfires
At least six men in Oregon have been accused of intentionally setting blazes during the state’s devastating wildfire season, according to a report on Sunday.
But there is no evidence that the suspects were motivated by politics, despite conspiracy theories that have spread about the fires that have burned more than 1 million acres, The Oregonian newspaper of Portland reported. Instead, some of the blazes were attributed to petty beefs, relationship troubles and enjoying the “smell of smoke,” officials told the paper.
One man, Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton, 39, was discovered allegedly setting fires July 28 in the woods outside Glide after he became upset with a member of a local forest-protection organization.
“Jedediah was mad because the guy from [the Douglas Forest Protection Association] would not help him and not give him a ride to town,” authorities wrote in a probable-cause affidavit.
Then, Elias Newton Pendergrass, 44, was busted in connection with the Sweet Creek Fires on Aug. 30 after allegedly threatening to burn down the town of Mapletown if his girlfriend broke up with him, The Oregonian reported.
Other suspects appear to have troubled backgrounds.
Jonathan Wayne Maas, 44, has been charged with starting a blaze Sept. 9 near a disc-golf course in Dexter, about 20 miles from the Holiday Farm fire that has spread to 170,000 acres. Maas — whose rap sheet includes convictions for forgery, burglary and firearm possession — told authorities he tossed a flare into a forested area in the hope of starting a fire, the paper reported.
Then two days later, Samuel Piatt, 53, who is homeless, told officers that he “likes the smell of smoke” when he was busted for allegedly lighting up a large pile of leaves in Oregon City, the report said.
Another homeless man, Domingo Lopez Jr., 45, was accused of going on a 12-hour spree beginning Sept. 13 in which he allegedly set brush fires along an interstate highway in Portland, according to the paper.
He admitted to the fires and was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, authorities said.
Michael Jarrod Bakkela, 41, also apparently homeless, was apprehended on Sept. 8 after he set a fire near railroad tracks in Phoenix, Ore., authorities said. Bakkela’s blaze damaged 15 properties, officials said, and he faces numerous arson, criminal mischief and reckless-endangerment charges.
Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told The Oregonian that the wildfire coverage could be an incentive.
“All that people are talking about right now is these fires, it’s on TV and in the newspapers,” he said. “I would imagine this could be sort of a motivator for people who had those types of tendencies.”
Meanwhile in California, more than two dozen major wildfires continued to rage on Sunday.