Damin Anthony Pashilk, 40, was arrested Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, in connection to the setting a wildfire burning in Lake County and other fires, Cal Fire said.
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He was arrested on August 15, 2016. “My thoughts continue to be with the people of Lake County during this hard time”, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Director Ken Pimlott said.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant didn’t have the breakdown of the number of homes, businesses and other buildings destroyed by the fire, which broke out Saturday and spans almost 5 square miles.
Suspected arsonist Damin Pashilk’s FB page….
Last September, the Valley Fire, which investigators discovered was sparked by faulty wiring on a hot tub, burned 76,067 acres around the communities of Cobb and Middletown, killing four people and destroying 1,322 homes.
Lt. Doug Pittman, a Marin County sheriff’s spokesman who was working on behalf of Cal Fire, said residents fled their homes very quickly this weekend.
The organization was raising money to help rebuild homes in nearby communities torched previous year.
The blaze was first reported just before 5 p.m. Saturday in the area of Clayton Creek Road and Highway 29, according to the Associated Press.
Temperatures in the area are expected to climb to near 100 degrees Tuesday, with easterly winds of about 10 miles per hour, making fighting the fire challenging.
About 4,500 people live in the mountain resort, which is now under evacuation orders. The blaze was burning along Interstate 15.
Brown declares State of Emergency in Lake County due to Clayton Fire Pashilk has been arrested at least a dozen times before mostly for parole violations, but also on drug and weapons charges. Officials said the fire destroyed 175 structures, and 100 of those were homes. In a little over a year, fires have destroyed more than 1,400 of the 36,000 housing units in all of Lake County.
Police on Monday arrested the person they think started the 4,000-acre Clayton Fire that ravaged Northern California over the weekend.
The latest blaze, which began Saturday, had burned through nearly five square miles Monday.
The area contains several dozen large homes and horse ranches. Aircraft were dumping water on the flames that snaked along ridgetops.
It’s also stopped a freight train and the crew had to flee.
The vast Clayton Fire has been spread by fierce winds and stretched to more than six square miles about 90 miles from San Francisco. But then, winds picked up and sent embers flying over firefighters heads, causing the fire to take off and turn into a structure-destroying conflagration.
A bulldozer operator died on July 26 when his tractor rolled over as he helped property owners battle the flames, this year’s sixth wildfire fatality in California. Another 1,500 homes and other structures are threatened.
The hospital will remain closed until further notice, according to a statement obtained by Lake County News.
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The battalion chief says the three-tiered system using helicopters to dump water, air attack to oversee the operations, and tankers to drop retardant is an essential part of what makes cal fire so effective.
