PLACERVILLE, Calif. — A man with a lengthy criminal history has been charged with deliberately starting a northern California wildfire that has shown explosive growth and driven nearly 2,800 people from their homes, authorities said Thursday.
Wayne Allen Huntsman, 37, was arrested late Wednesday in Placerville and booked into El Dorado County Jail, where he was being held on $10 million bail.
Huntsman faces a forest-land arson charge, along with a special allegation of arson with aggravating factors because the blaze east of Sacramento put a dozen firefighters in serious danger, forcing them to deploy fire shields. They escaped unharmed.
The wind-whipped fire burned through 111 square miles and was 5 percent contained, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It closed part of a highway that runs to the Nevada state line near Lake Tahoe.
District Attorney Vern Pierson declined to say what led investigators to Huntsman, who was scheduled to be arraigned Friday. He also would not comment on a possible motive, saying the case was ongoing. Investigators were in contact with Hunstman before his arrest.
“It’s something that’s evolving at this point,” Pierson said of the investigation.
The blaze, which started Saturday, has been fueled by heavy timber and grass that is extremely dry because of a third straight year of drought. It is costing $5 million a day to fight, Cal Fire officials said.
“It is extreme fire behavior,” said Michelle Eidam, a captain with the Sacramento fire department who was helping with the blaze. “All bets are off right now because this fire is so volatile.”
Many of the 12,000 threatened homes were in Pollock Pines, 60 miles east of Sacramento. Though the fire grew substantially late Wednesday and into the night, it burned mostly into wilderness land in the El Dorado National Forest away from the town, according to Cal Fire.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency late Wednesday.
