[HartleyMBaldwin]

There are certainly wildland arsons but most are accidental either from natural causes (lightning), trains (I have seen a few of these), and/or negligence (discarded cigarettes, slash piles, machinery) there is proof positive for lightning strike fires and presumptive starts along rail lines.

Also, widespread organized arson in remote areas would be very hard to keep secret. But conspiracy theories are so much fun.

[volunbeer]

It comes with the territory. Our local facebook news page always has two comments pasted all over for every fire -

There has been a lot of arson lately

OR

Another meth lab (which are pretty much gone since meth from the cartels is so good and cheap and plentiful)

An old timer explained to me once (regarding “arson” conspiracies) that it’s easy to assign attribution to something you understand (arson) vs something you don’t understand (other fire causation).