Free Republic

Law enforcement officials now suspect several of the California wildfires that have killed 18, consumed more than 718,000 acres and destroyed more than 2,400 homes in 10 days were deliberately set – increasing speculation there is a terror connection to the blazes. One man has been arrested so far -- Dikran Armouchian, 23, of Pasadena. Damage estimates exceed $2 billion, but that figure is expected to rise substantially as an inventory of firefighting costs and lost property is completed. The San Bernardino County sheriff’s department is looking for another man in his early to mid-20's who was seen leaving the...

...Los Angeles County Parks officials and deputies arrived about 10 a.m. as Armouchian was standing next to a four-foot-wide fire. He warned the deputies to stay away and not extinguish the blaze, Det. Ed Nordskog said. The fire was in a dry creek bed and had not been built on dryer brush nearby, Nordskog said. Armouchian might have been under the influence of methamphetamine at the time, Nordskog said.

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST -- A man was arrested Tuesday after deputies caught him setting a fire in a steep, remote canyon filled with dry brush and large trees in the Angeles National Forest, according to sheriff detectives. Hikers in a remote trail about a half-mile north of the Eaton Canyon Bridge in Altadena saw a man making a fire there and alerted authorities, sheriff's Detective Ed Nordskog said. Los Angeles County Parks officials and deputies arrived about 10 a.m. as the man was standing next to a fire about four feet in diameter. He warned the deputies to stay away...