Behind the arson arrests during the firestorm: Cases reveal L.A.’s burning problem
Authorities in L.A. County say the recent uptick in arson arrests was probably the result of increased public attention to common smaller fires, not the work of copycats.
In the days after the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted, authorities throughout L.A. County announced a series of arson arrests.
But those charged were not accused of sparking the devastating wildfires. Their blazes were much smaller — the sort that might have passed unnoticed if huge swaths of land hadn’t already gone up in flames.
From Irwindale to Brentwood, police said they found people burning dried-out Christmas trees and trash or setting dumpsters ablaze. One man was caught using a blowtorch to incinerate debris in West Hills as the Kenneth fire raged above him, police said.
California’s fire seasons often bring out a pair of misconceptions. First is an assumption that homeless people are responsible for sparking the biggest infernos. A related and recurring concern is that media attention on the massive wildfires inspires copycats to commit arson.
The causes of the Palisades and Eaton fires are still under investigation, with sparking power lines being scrutinized as one possible ignition point. Last week, sources told The Times the Palisades fire may have been “human-caused,” but did not offer specifics.
Authorities say the recent uptick in arson arrests was probably the result of increased public attention to common smaller fires, which are dangerous during extreme weather conditions. The city is constantly burning to some degree — it’s just that people aren’t always calling 911 to report it, said Ed Nordskog, a veteran arson investigator with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
“L.A. has dozens of fires every single day and quite a few of them are purposely set,” Nordskog said.
Prosecutors and arson investigators say many of those everyday fires are set intentionally or accidentally by people experiencing homelessness or suffering from mental illness.
At least nine of the suspects in a series of publicized arson arrests that followed the eruption of the wildfires on Jan. 7 were unhoused, according to police agencies.
Five of them appeared to struggle with mental health issues or substance use, according to information shared by police and fire officials on individual cases. The criminal case against one suspect, Travis Glodt, has been suspended due to concerns over his competency to stand trial.
The Hughes fire burns the chaparral surrounding Castaic Lake on Jan. 22.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
True pyromaniacs — people with an impulse disorder characterized by a compulsive need to set things on fire — do exist, but they are a rare breed. Studies have found that less than 10% of adults who start fires meet the criteria for pyromania.
The L.A. County public defender’s office is representing seven of the defendants charged in recent weeks with setting arson fires during an emergency, according to an agency spokeswoman.
“We recognize the profound loss this wildfire has caused and the need for accountability,” Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said in a statement. “Justice and the presumption of innocence require fairness and due process for all to ensure that outcomes are based on evidence and not overshadowed by the weight of tragedy.”
Advocates expressed concern that news of the arson charges against homeless people in the wake of the devastating fires will add to stigmatization of some of L.A. County’s most vulnerable residents.
Sara Reyes, executive director of SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, said that although she understands that people get frustrated and look for someone to blame in times of crisis, conflating the two issues helps no one.
“It really, truly is one more way for people to paint with a broad brush the community experiencing homelessness as some sort of other,” she said. “Is this a problem in encampments? Yeah, because people should be homed.”
From 2018 to 2020, the number of fires related to homelessness nearly tripled, accounting for roughly 38% of all fires the department responded to in that time frame, according to a previous Times analysis. Approximately a third of these fires were classified as arsons, according to LAFD data, which does not include more recent figures.
The Los Angeles Police Department made 22 arson arrests in January, nearly double the number made in the same month last year, according to Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton.
Only seven such arrests were recorded in January 2023 and eight in January 2022. Hamilton said he believes most fires set in L.A. involve “warming and cooking fires” related to homelessness.
Los Angeles County Assistant Dist. Atty. Maria Ramirez, who has years of experience supervising arson prosecutions, said fires set for the sole purpose of hurting people or causing damage are much less common than cases that involve defendants “who are maybe unhoused and also suffering from mental illnesses that are not being treated.”
Diversion programs — which allow eligible defendants to be housed in a treatment facility as opposed to jail or prison under the terms of a negotiated plea — often reject potential clients with arson convictions due to the danger they pose.
Ramirez said there are no locked facilities that cater to arsonists with mental health issues.
“The only alternative is to send them to prison but they’re not dealing with the mental health part of it then, just the punishment,” she said.
Reyes echoed those frustrations, saying treating homeless arson suspects in a solely punitive way would achieve nothing.
“I think that if a diversion program, which is designed to provide care and reparations, is not taking in the people for whom this is a mental health issue, then it is absolutely not set up to solve the problem long term,” she said.
Reyes said L.A.’s firestorm has done far more damage to the homeless community than the public realizes. Over the last few weeks, she’s noticed a sharp uptick in people coming in coughing violently from living outside with incredibly poor air quality, as well as an increase in people suffering from infections.
She also said the fire created a new population of homeless people, many of whom are over 60 and can’t afford to rebuild or relocate after losing everything.
“It’s like watching the slowest train wreck happen in real time,” she said.
In recent years, the only major L.A. wildfire that has been linked to homelessness was the 2017 Skirball fire, when an encampment fire spread and destroyed six homes and damaged others in the hills of Bel-Air.
Because even smaller fires pose a greater danger during extreme weather conditions, those accused in recent weeks will face charges of setting an arson fire during a state of emergency, which carries a stiffer prison sentence.
Increased public awareness probably has headed off some arson incidents in recent weeks.
On Jan. 9, residents in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles detained 33-year-old Juan Sierra shortly after he allegedly was observed setting a blaze about five miles from where the Kenneth fire erupted and burned 1,052 acres.
Ventura County authorities labeled Sierra a “person of interest” in the fire, and he remains in custody only on suspicion of a probation violation. Arson investigators have yet to present a case to Ventura County prosecutors.
Residents similarly detained a man suspected of starting a brush fire Monday afternoon near the Chatsworth Reservoir. L.A. County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrested Alejandro Martinez, 41, on suspicion of arson.
“Thank God there were no strong winds, because it could have gone so much worse,” said Gabe Cortez, a video journalist who captured the incident.
In Los Angeles, police made arson arrests in connection with small fires near the scene of the larger blazes still burning in parts of the city.
The LAPD arrested Manuel Rodriguez, 35, on suspicion of setting fire to a dumpster behind a public library in Brentwood on Jan. 13, as neighborhood residents were under an evacuation order from the Palisades fire.
A person uses a garden hose during the Sunset fire to extinguish flames in a palm tree on Vista Street in Hollywood on Jan. 8.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
One week later, police observed 26-year-old Kevin Calderon fleeing the scene of a small brush fire that erupted in Griffith Park on Jan. 20, more than a week after the Sunset fire by Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, according to LAPD Lt. Kevin Austin.
Investigators lacked probable cause to arrest Calderon, who is homeless, in connection with the fire but held him on outstanding misdemeanor warrants. The fire remains under investigation, Austin said.
Ramirez said the district attorney’s office — which has publicized the majority of the announcements of arson arrests throughout the county in recent weeks — is trying to strike a balance between keeping the community informed while not demonizing struggling Angelenos.
“This is something that is happening and we have to make that clear, because if the individual who was setting fire to a tree wasn’t stopped, that could have caused another wildfire,” she said, referring to an incident in Azusa. “We do have to shed light on the fact that there are individuals with mental health issues who are involved in this behavior.”
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