As a firestorm raged toward them, one which killed 4 of them, they were taking pictures in apparent glee and telling two tourists who had been trapped with them to enjoy the view, how beautiful it would be when the firestorm passed them across the river. Unfortunately for some of them, the firestorm jumped the river....
Ping to post.
“”As a law enforcement fire investigator, I have been involved way too many times in this type of investigation. I have been employed in my present position for 13 years, as a full-time fire investigator in a suburban county in Northern NJ. In those 13 years, we have arrested over 30 volunteers for the crime of arson. Many of these had multiple fires charged to them. We have a 100% guilty rate, as none of these persons ever took a case to trial. This is a huge problem in the volunteer fire service.””
Not to mention the “professional” firefighters like good ol’ Johnny Orr. Good thing he’s still locked up, huh? This kind of fire would be right up his alley. Back in the day, when my dad worked for the US Forest Circus, he told me of fires set by the Ind... errr Native Americans, because it would assure them of paid employment, AND each man would be nicely re-equipped with clothes, sleeping bags, shovels, etc. Note that there are several tribes down those parts of California.
As far as the timing goes, it doesn’t take real genius to set off the tinderbox at the time of year well-known for fires.