California authorities arrest man suspected of starting one of this wildfires

California authorities arrest man suspected of starting one of this wildfires51-year-old Forrest Gordon Clark was arrested in southern California on suspicion of deliberate arson.

It is his police who are responsible for the fire in the mountains of southern California. This focus – one of the three epicenters of the California fires – was called “Saint”, because the flame on this site is rising to the skies, resembling a biblical fire.

“Holy” has already destroyed more than 9.6 thousand acres of forest.

The court decided to elect him a measure of restraint in the form of detention and named the extremely high amount of possible collateral – $ 1 million.

As Orange County officials reported, Clarke e-mailed a threatening letter to the head of the local voluntary fire brigade. “This place will be burnt,” the e-mail stated.

Clark resisted the arrest, so he was charged not only with arson, but also with terrorism and resistance at arrest.
The authorities say that the arson committed by Clark on Monday was the end of his longstanding dispute with his neighbors.

The fire destroyed all 12 nearby houses, except the house of Clark himself.

Susan Schroeder, spokeswoman for the Orange County Public Prosecutor’s Office, said the arsonist would be held accountable for “these terrible crimes.”

Forest fires this year have become the strongest in the history of California. Localize the fire – that is, stop the spread of fire, but do not extinguish it – it is possible only in half of the territory covered by flames. The fire will rage at least until the first week of September, the fire department said.

According to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection of California, the fire covered 600 thousand acres and is still expanding. While firefighters control about five percent of the entire area of ​​fire due to extremely high temperatures. The authorities expect that after a slight cold snap on the weekend firefighters will be able to work more actively.

This year’s fires have three powerful centers – “Mendocino Complex”, “Carr Fire” and “Saint”.

The largest of them is the “Mendocino Complex Fire”. To his education led the union of two separate large fires. In this area, in two weeks, the area covered by fire was level with the territory of Los Angeles.

In the north, in the district of Shasta, a separate fire rages, called “Carr Fire“. He burnt more than 176 thousand acres of forest, destroyed more than a thousand houses and caused the death of at least seven people,

In the south of the state from Monday, another hotbed of fire, called “Holy” (Holy Fire) is expanding. It was this ignition that occurred through Clark’s fault, as the police believe.

Almost 14 thousand people take part in extinguishing fires, including firefighters from Arizona, Washington State and Alaska. They are assisted by the military, as well as specialists from Australia and New Zealand, who have specially trained in the United States for training in Idaho. To combat fire, aviation is used.

To extinguish fires attracted even prisoners. More than 1,000 prisoners with low relapse potential work on a voluntary basis and receive $ 2 a day, plus $ 1 for each hour of work.

Two firefighters suffered during the extinguishment of the “Holy” and are in the hospital.

It is not yet known what caused the ignition of the Mendocino Complex.

But the cause of the fire “Carr Fire” is already installed – it is the ignition of the flat tire. The spark from friction tires and asphalt on July 23 grew into a deadly fire, which has been raging for more than two weeks.

Prior to this, the largest fire in the history of the state was considered “Thomas Fire”, which occurred in the districts of Santa Barbara and Ventura in 2017.

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