Arizona Fire-Starter Suspect Arrested

AP ^ | Jun 30, 2002 | ALISA BLACKWOOD

[grimalkin]

SHOW LOW, Ariz., Jun 30, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A man was arrested Saturday night for allegedly causing the first of two wildfires that merged into the blaze that destroyed more than 400 homes in eastern Arizona, an official said.

Pete Pierce, a spokesman for the agencies investigating the cause of the largest wildfire ever in Arizona, didn't release the man's name or any details about the circumstances that led to his arrest.

Pierce said the man was to be arraigned Sunday morning before a federal magistrate.

The Arizona Republic, citing a federal source it didn't identify, reported on its Web site that the man is a Bureau of Indian Affairs firefighter.

The man was accused of causing the Rodeo fire, which broke out June 18 just north of the town of Cibecue on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The fire exploded up steep terrain, threatened the small city of Show Low and overran two towns just to the west.

That fire then merged with another started by a lost hiker signaling a helicopter, forming a mammoth blaze that had burned 452,000 acres by Saturday. In all, at least 423 homes had been destroyed.

Paul K. Charlton, U.S. attorney for Arizona, was to hold a news conference on the arrest Sunday morning, Pierce said.

Phones rang unanswered late Saturday night at the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix.

By ALISA BLACKWOOD Associated Press Writer

[per loin]

Government employees cannot be allowed into the woods without civilian chaperones. Three states now with huge fires due to these lunatics.

[College Repub]

I think it's time to send Smokey the Bear to the island of misfit mascots...

[AAABEST]

Government employees cannot be allowed into the woods without civilian chaperones. Three states now with huge fires due to these lunatics.

Not to mention the big one the bureaucrats started that burned Los Alamos a while back. These guys are dangerous.

All the regulations, land grabs and gazillions of dollars under the bridge and they literally do more damage than any good they ever attempted.

They chase bicyclers off, terrorize land owners, put people out of work and ruin lives .... then they burn it all down.

[The Shrew]

Hey those of us who live in the Jurdisdiction of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have an opportunity to get together, learn, plan, meet one another and make a difference. Please check out this thread. Freepers Making a Difference

Let's get together at FRiva Las Vegas and get to know each other and make a difference! Please forward this to your ping lists and to the state boards! Regards, TS

[flamefront]

the man is a Bureau of Indian Affairs firefighter

And how many liberals are trying to make a political point? They act (during a terror war) as if to join in something similar to the White House trashing of Clintons gang.

Has anyone kept a list of views by all these government arsonists?

(Dare I tongue-in-cheek call it a conspiracy?)

[MARTIAL MONK]

The fact that he was a firefighter is probably a benign point. Everyone in Cibecue is a firefighter. There are few other opportunities. From the location I would guess that this fire was accidental and alcohol was involved.

It is, however, no secret that firefighters can make their own work. In a busy summer a firefighter can bank $80,000. If the season is slow they can expect $15,000. That is quite an incentive for a busy season. Rumors abound in the firecamps and most of them are bull but there are enough credible stories to make you realize that there is some truth there.

The real culprits are the ones that set the stage for this fire. The environmentalists are, in effect, running the forests. They've crawled back under their rocks right now, but we need to drag them out expose them for having caused this. If this slob hadn't caused it something else would have.

The homeowners can shoulder some of the blame also. Every time the Forest Service proposes a prescribed burn or thinning they are met with opposition by a few Little Miss Prissys. Burns are nasty and black and smell bad. Thinning means cutting trees out of their viewscape. They need to learn that nature will not conform to our preferences. Now we have a big black scar to show us just how wrong they were.

[meenie]

The prescribed burn is but one option to be utilized when all other options are impractical. Cattle grazing cleans up a lot of the trash that builds up on the forest floor. Logging will thin out the most of the thick stands that cause the biggest burns.

These are the two most economic means to get a return on the Federal investment as well as furnish lumber for the consuming public.

The officials on the public lands have discouraged any public use for the simple reason it makes their jobs harder. They can draw a salary by setting on their posterior without public involvement. In a case that I am familiar with, there is a force of 108 employees overseeing a total of 87,000 acres with no timber sales and a small amount of grazing.

[knuthom]

It is, however, no secret that firefighters can make their own work. In a busy summer a firefighter can bank $80,000. If the season is slow they can expect $15,000.

Wow. I didn't realize that there was this much financial incentive to start fires.

[Grampa Dave]

The problem of a list besides them being foresters or fire fighters is indentifying their real religion, being a druid for some enviral organization is never published.

Most of the so called foresters in the Forest Service now have been card carrying enviralists since their college days.

They are like Druid Priests and Nuns out pushing the agendas of their Druid Religion while getting paid by us. This is from their top management down to clowns like this guy.

When a fire happens in these high desert areas of NM, AZ and CO, people lose their homes or end up in a barren burnt out moonscape area that can last for a decade or more. Erosion when the rains finally come and from the wind makes living in what was a beautiful area a bad thing with dust in the dry season and flash floods and mud slides in the rainy season. Property value will plummet, and many fires survivors will sell their land cheap to one of the Eco Conservancy outfits, donate their property or abandon it.

Jake Reno during its reign of terror stopped all FBI and Justice monitoring of the real enviro radicals, the ALFS/ELFS/PETAs and the Anarachists roaming free in the Portland, Eugene, Or. area. These are our home grown terrorists, and arson is a favorite terrorist weapon that they use. They are being monitored now, but the governors of Oregon and Washington do not cooperate with the federals in collecting arson trail data.

[smithson]

If he said he was burning a letter from his ex-wife and cried a little, after being caught, he may be able to get off.

[madfly]

ping

[AAABEST]

Preach it Grampa!

[EverOnward]

thanks for the ping

[mafree]

bump

[Red Jones]

On tv they said that in Forest Lakes, the big forest based subdivision that has been under attack the last couple of days has large amounts of wild animals in it now. This is forest so there are normally bears, dear, elk, rabbits, wolves and coyotes in the forest. But you see there is limited amount of forest area, as the elevation changes the forest disappears. So, to the east, south and north there's been a lot of fire in the forest, the animals have rushed out, some of them of course got confused and perished in the fire. But for those that made it out, they are in the western end of this forest. They say that inForest Lakes there are hundreds of firefighting people and also very large numbers of animals at the same time, including bears & wolves. They say the animals are trying to avoid the people and vice versa.

[madfly]

Rodeo Fire, 450,000 acres. 472 homes lost.

Firefighter arrested Saturday at 8:15pm. Initial appearance US Magistrate today in Flagstaff. More info coming. News conference 11:00am.

Also, fire started in Linden after evacuees allowed back in. 20 ft X 20 ft.

[3catsanadog]

My niece is majoring in college to be a Park Ranger. I love her dearly but her mind is full of the environmental hooey baloney.

[VOA]

My niece is majoring in college to be a Park Ranger. I love her dearly but her mind
is full of the environmental hooey baloney.

(Friendly thought) Tell her to keep her mind open to the radical concepts of
empirical science...and the law of unintended consequences.
(and maybe suggest that the current spate of "mega-fire" is an unintended consequence
of a misguided policy of not actively managing fire risk in the federal land
for 8 years. If she doesn't clue into which eight years you are talking about...
don't waste your breath with further talk.)

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!