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Law enforcement agencies across the West Coast have arrested multiple alleged arsonists accused of 'intentionally setting fires' while hundreds of blazes wreak havoc in several states. A total of 24 wildfires remained active in California on Thursday, having burned nearly 2.5 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Just two of those blazes have been contained. Washington state was battling 16 wildfires on Thursday, none of which had been contained. Sixteen fires – none of which have been contained – raged across Oregon,

David Axelrod, Obama’s former chief campaign strategist, current CNN contributor, and director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, shared a New York Times story on Twitter Sunday, claiming the violent riots in Seattle are what President Donald Trump was “hoping for.” Axelrod captioned his tweet, “The (sic) is precisely what @realDonaldTrump and his campaign were hoping for. He’s an arsonist, not a fireman. He wants to stir violent protests to fuel his “law and order” campaign ads.” Last week, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also took a shot at the president’s intentions, labeling his decision to send a “surge...

A woman from Tacoma was arrested Thursday morning and faces five federal counts of arson in connection to burning five Seattle Police Department vehicles during George Floyd protests. Margaret Aislinn Channon, 25, was arrested at her Tacoma home for allegedly setting five patrol vehicles on fire that were parked in the area of Sixth and Pine. U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said the 25-year-old was caught on multiple cameras May 30 using an accelerant lit like a blowtorch to start fires in five police vehicles. “I commend the painstaking work of law enforcement using a variety of images to identify...

The three Louisiana churches went up in flames in a span of 10 days, each doused in gasoline and torched with oily shop rags in the middle of the night. Each Baptist congregation was predominantly black, causing church leaders to fear that white supremacists may target their parish next. But as the fears swirled, the arsonist, 22-year-old Holden Matthews, was busy planning his next album cover, according to text messages obtained by prosecutors He burned down the three churches in St. Landry Parish, federal prosecutors said Monday, because he wanted “to raise his profile as a ‘Black Metal’ musician.” Matthews,...

's say your house is on fire. An insane arsonist put a lit match to some oily rags in your basement, and the blaze spread so slowly that you didn't even notice at first. This malevolent criminal also cut your phone lines so you couldn't call for help. (There are no cellphones in this scenario, just bear with me. It's set in the '70s, okay?) Once you finally realized you were in trouble, you shouted for help and your neighbors called the fire department. Your local fire chief might not the best one your town has ever had, so it...

A Portland activist died after being hit by an SUV early Saturday near a Northeast Portland cidery and left-wing hangout, according to multiple people who knew him. Police identified Sean D. Kealiher, a 23-year-old Portland resident, as the man who was hit after leaving Cider Riot, a Couch Street gathering place for antifascists, anarchists and other leftists. Shots were fired at the car after it hit Kealiher, and the vehicle crashed into a building.

A 45-year-old Iraqi migrant .. setting several fires in the center of Graz – Austria’s second largest city after Vienna – including ones at city hall and a district court has been arrested. ... arson attacks started .. at the district court of Graz-West.. the man was seen spraying .. flammable fluid throughout the court’s lobby before setting it on fire ... set another one in front of Graz’s city hall.. The staff saw it on video surveillance and sounded the alarm. ... three separate fires were set and that the smoke became so thick that he wasn’t able to...

The man who fatally shot two people at a White Settlement Church on Sunday before being killed by church security has been identified as a 43-year-old Keith Thomas Kinnunen, a River Oaks man with a criminal record, according to two law enforcement sources. Kinnunen is believed to have been wearing a disguise, including a fake beard, when he stood up, pulled a shotgun from his clothing and opened fire inside the church, killing 64-year-old Anton Wallace, a church deacon from Fort Worth, and 67-year-old Richard White, of River Oaks.

Portland Antifa is planning a memorial for the terrorist, who attacked a migrant detention center with an AR-15 rifle and Molotov cocktails, tonight calling him a “fallen comrade”. After the horrifying attack on a migrant detention center that, had it not been foiled by local authorities, could have resulted in the deaths of law enforcement as well as migrants, Portland Antifa has sided with terror and is planning a vigil for Willem Van Spronsen. The pro-Antifa Twitter account @OccupyICEPDX posted information about the memorial today, inviting residents of Portland to “Stand with us to honor our fallen comrade, #WillemVanSpronsen, this...

The self-proclaimed Antifa militant who was killed Saturday by Washington state police as he attacked a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center was seen in a recent CNN program that critics say glorified a radical, left-wing movement. Willem Van Spronsen, 69, sent a manifesto to friends the day before the assault in which he wrote, "I am Antifa," and now he is lionized by members of the leftwing group as a "martyr." He also appears to have been part of a May 5 episode of CNN’s “United Shades of America” with W. Kamau Bell.

A 37-year-old man from New Jersey was arrested after attempting to enter St Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan with two gasoline cans Wednesday night, police say. Church ushers stopped the man at about 8 p.m. and notified nearby officers with the NYPD Critical Response Command, who took him into custody. Authorities say he drove to St. Patrick's, parked in front of Saks and took two gas cans and lighter fluid from the car into the cathedral where he was stopped. The man's intentions were not immediately clear. The incident came two days after the fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

Brandon N. McGlover, the Temecula resident charged with setting the Cranston fire and other blazes near Idyllwild in July, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of arson of a structure or forest land and was sentenced to 12 years, four months in prison. In addition to admitting he set the Cranston and Sage Road fires, McGlover, 33, also admitted an allegation that he set multiple structures ablaze. At least five homes and 13,000 acres burned in the Cranston fire.

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Holiday revelers were shocked to see a woman in a hoodie attempt to set the featured Christmas tree on fire at Sundance Square this weekend. She lit a piece of paper, tossed it toward the massive tree then used an accelerant as stunned onlookers watched. Luckily though, “Nothing was actually lit on fire,” said Fort Worth police Sgt. Chris Britt. One witness posted video (before knowing the woman’s gender) of the whole thing on Facebook saying, “Sarah Chretien and I were talking a picture right next to this guy before we realized what on earth he...

Forrest Clark's Facebook page is filled with posts about miracle cancer cures, Qanon, and supposed secret pedophile rings. … Some of the conspiracies Clark posted about were merely goofy, like the Illuminati, ancient aliens, and Flat Earthism. Most recently, he seemed to have bought into Qanon, which some suspect to be a troll on Boomer conservatives. Meanwhile, others were directly related to forest fires and some did veer into extremist territory. For instance, his Facebook activity suggests he was obsessed with the idea of secret pedophile rings—the same idea that led a man to bring an assault rifle to a...

An arsonist broke into a showroom to destroy a fleet of luxury cars but ended up setting himself on fire.

Hundreds gathered outside a north Minneapolis police precinct to remember a black man who was fatally shot by an officer. A candlelight vigil and march organized by the NAACP started at 4:30 p.m. outside the 4th Precinct. Stephen Green, national director of the NAACP's youth and college division, said the weather may be cold, but people's hearts are burning for justice for 24-year-old Jamar Clark. The group started marching peacefully at 6 p.m. heading east down Plymouth Ave N. toward the area where Clark was shot by police. They stopped at the site to pray and sing the protest song...

A Florence man charged with setting a series of fires nine years ago in Ravalli and Missoula counties that cost millions of dollars to fight was back in a Ravalli County court Wednesday. Jonah Mica Warr, 28, was recently released on probation after serving seven years of a 10-year federal prison sentence for setting the fires in 2006. Warr’s court troubles in Ravalli County date back to 2004 when he pleaded guilty before District Judge Jeffery Langton to a number of felony charges for possession of explosives and criminal mischief for blowing up mailboxes in the Florence and Stevensville areas....

The man removed the nylon flag from a flagpole in the 6200 block of Pageantry Street (map) sometime between 12:25 a.m and 12:50 a.m. on July 25, 2015, according to a news release from the Long Beach Police Department. He then went on to the street and set the flag on fire, police said. ... Police described the wanted man as being white or Hispanic, in his early 20s, with a stock build and tattoos on the outside of his left calf and on the inside of his right calf. He wore a monster baseball cap, a T-shirt with a...

He was the liberal-media darling of the Ferguson protests; now he’s an alleged arsonist. Joshua Williams is everywhere: protesting in Ferguson, Mo., Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, Ohio. He has perfected the skill of catching the attention of journalists and using them to elevate his claims of police brutality to national attention. Quoted or photographed in countless articles in publications including the New York Times and USA Today, Williams claims police in Ferguson, Mo., targeted him because he is black. The truth, caught on tape by National Review Online, is much different. The charismatic teenager is one of Ferguson’s most recognizable...

LAPD officers swarmed and handcuffed what they described as a "person of interest" in the Los Angeles arsonist spree that has left thousands of residents scared out of their wits for days. Fire officials say "it is too early to speculate" if this is the person responsible for the fires. Police have already released surveillance video showing the alleged suspect -- a ponytailed Steven Seagal lookalike (below). As you can see in our video ... the man in custody sports a ponytail Cops previously said 39 fires could be linked to the recent rash of arsons ... and another...