Arson Suspect Held In Blaze Threatening Mariposa, California
A 34-year-old man remained in custody on an arson charge related to the fire skirting the north side of Mariposa. By Monday afternoon, it had burned 2,000 acres of chaparral and dead standing oak trees on a hill above the community's high school, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported.
CDF Capt. Greg Grizzell said officials allege that Brian Chambers intentionally set the fire with a match inserted inside a cigarette.
He was being held at the Mariposa County Jail on $75,000 bail. Records released by the sheriff's department showed that he served about four months of a one-year sentence in county jail for making a false bomb threat.
Chambers also is a suspect in a string of other intentionally set fires in Mariposa over the last two weeks, Grizzell said. The most recent blaze started just before 4 p.m. Sunday.
All the schools in Mariposa were closed Monday, and about 300 homes in the town of 1,400 residents were evacuated. No structures had been reported damaged by late afternoon.
``The whole town has stopped and watched,'' said Olivia Luke, a CDF spokeswoman. ``It almost looks like a volcano has erupted there is so much ash and so much smoke -- miles and miles of it.''
More than 600 firefighters were on the lines, with another 500 on the way. By midday, CDF officials estimated the fire was 15 percent contained.
Although fire officials are accustomed to managing multiple fires during California's dry late summers, the proximity of the two Monday was made all the more challenging by Sunday's death of a 24-year-old helicopter crew member.
Eva Schicke became the first female firefighter from the California Department of Forestry to die in the line of duty. She was killed after she and six other firefighters were dropped into rugged terrain just outside Yosemite National Park and overrun by the flames.
Her crew members were released after being treated for their injuries.