Transient Says Blaze Started by Campfires : Investigation: County authorities call his stories ‘confused.’ They suspect that the fire that seared through Carbon Canyon was deliberately set.

A 29-year-old transient who was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of arson in a blaze that seared through Carbon Canyon told fire officials he had been making a pot of coffee when the flames accidentally got out of control.

Peter Diaz Reyes told investigators he had set up camp Tuesday night behind the Santa Fe Energy Co. building on Carbon Canyon Road, where the blaze apparently originated, according to Orange County Fire Department Capt. Hank Raymond.

After waking up Wednesday morning at his camp, about half a mile east of Carbon Canyon Regional Park, Reyes said, he started a little fire to make coffee, according to Raymond.

When the fire spread to the nearby brush, Reyes told investigators that he moved about aquarter-mile down the canyon to start another fire to make his coffee, Raymond said.

Fire officials, however, said they do not believe Reyes’ story.

“His stories are . . . confused,” Raymond said.

Despite finding cooking utensils and burned packages of coffee and tea, fire investigators said they believe that the fires were set intentionally--and not for making coffee.

Officials declined to elaborate on their investigation.

When the flames from the second fire also started to spread, Reyes fled, officials said. The two fires later joined into one conflagration, which charred more than 3,500 acres and burned at least six homes.

Brea police, working on a tip from a witness who said he saw Reyes leaving the canyon, picked him up shortly after the 11 a.m. fire started.

Police then turned Reyes over to county arson investigators.

Fire officials said that they do not know how long Reyes had been camping out in the brush and that items found in his possession indicated that he may have come from Blythe.

Reyes was being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Times staff writer Robert Pierre contributed to this report.