Homeless man wanted for questioning in Station fire

L.A. Times ^ | October 13, 2009 | Ari B. Bloomekatz and Andrew Blankstein

[americanophile]

The 25-year-old Nigerian national was reportedly seen tending a small blaze about six days before the Station fire started in the same area. Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives hope to question a man who was spotted tending a small fire in the vicinity of the Station fire almost one week before that deadly blaze erupted in the Angeles National Forest.

At a news conference Monday, homicide detectives requested the public's help in locating a 25-year-old homeless man who was caught "feeding" a small, uncontrolled fire in the early afternoon of Aug. 20 -- six days before the start of the devastating Station fire.

The man, Babatunsin Olukunle, a Nigerian national, was reportedly caught tending the small fire near mile marker 36 of the Angeles Crest Highway. The two U.S. Forest Service employees who spotted him ordered Olukunle to stay put while they extinguished the fire.

But Olukunle slipped into the woods, and now investigators hope to question him, according to Sheriff's Det. Todd Anderson.

[americanophile]

[Dilbert San Diego]

an illegal alien was tending a fire. Okay.........

I heard other news reports that he had been a student. Okay, if he had been a foreign student, and now he’s homeless, a dropout from school, why was he allowed to stay in this country?

[rsobin]

If he is a muzzie it will be buried guilty or not. You will never know.

[gaijin]

there are muzzies, and there are gangsters. Nigerians are muzzie gangers.

But here..?

***A fire-setting, bum, muzzie gangster...!****

[americanophile]

I don't know what his immigration status is, but if he's a homeless foreign national, not living up to what are presumably the enrollment terms of his likely student visa, then there's a good chance he's an illegal alien. If he started this fire, he's responsible for destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of forest, scores of homes, and killing two firefighters.

[La Lydia]

It says he is a Nigerian national. I have a feeling he is a student visa overstay. The universities are supposed to be reporting them when they drop out.

Olukunle's family has told investigators that he came home from UC Davis for summer break in 2007, began acting strangely and disappeared in July.

[gaijin]

Just burning down the forests and killing the firemen young American kids aren’t themselves willing to...

OK I’ll stop.

But seriously, last year in SoCal something like 1/2 of ALL the burn victims in the state were illegal aliens, and each of them was getting treatment at something like $50,000 PER DAY PER PERSON, and there were over 70 of them.....!

This was while the state was bankrupt.

oh! And last month in Las Vegas something like 70% of all the welfare dialysis folks were also illegals —that’s while all of the LV real estate is imploding and people are losing their homes.

[La Enchiladita]

Posted earlier: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2361547/posts

I always do a keyword search, then title. I used ‘Station Fire’ and ‘wildfires’ as keywords.

[americanophile]

Fine, fine...having a bad day? You seem a little cranky.

[DoughtyOne]

If he’s here legally, this can be dismissed. Well, that’s not really true is it...

“Just setting the fires U.S. Citizens won’t...”