LOS ANGELES --
A Hollywood man and a Pacoima demolition company are among 10 defendants who have been charged with federal offenses for allegedly starting wildfires that have burned in the Southland, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Lucas T. Bennett, 24, allegedly started a one-quarter-acre brush fire in December 2006 near the Angeles National Forest's Islip Saddle Trail by having an illegal campfire. Bennett has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of causing timber to burn, and is set to be tried Sept. 6, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In the other case involving a Los Angeles County fire, the Best Demolition and Recycling Co. Inc. is charged for allegedly causing the 290-acre Middle Fire in Little Tujunga Canyon in 2003. The fire allegedly started because an employee of the Pacoima company used a tractor without a proper spark arrester.
Among the others charged:
Jeremiah D. Hope, who allegedly started October 2003's Playground Fire in the mountains above San Bernardino when -- after being evacuated due to the Old Fire, which was burning near his mountain retreat -- he drove several friends down a dirt road marked "No Motor Vehicles" and parked in an area of dry grass and ferns. The dry plants ignited, and the Playground Fire later merged with the Old Fire, together burning more than 90,000 acres of National Forest land. Hope, a 25-year-old Riverside resident, was charged last week with two misdemeanor counts of causing National Forest lands to burn and placing a vehicle in a dangerous place. Steven Emory Butcher, a 48-year-old transient accused of starting the 2006 Day Fire, which began on Labor Day in Piru Canyon and burned more than 162,000 acres, most in the Los Padres National Forest, before firefighters finally succeeded in putting it out one month later. Butcher was arrested after being indicted last week on eight charges, including two counts of starting fires that emitted embers that caused wildfires -- felonies that carry up to five years in prison for each count.Butcher is also accused of causing the 2002 Ellis Fire that burned about 70 acres in Piru Canyon.
He made his initial appearance Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, and was ordered held without bond pending further hearings, prosecutors said.
