Gorman Man, 34, Held on Suspicion of Arson

A Gorman-area man was being held on suspicion of arson Tuesday for setting a small grass fire on a neighbor’s property after a dispute, authorities said.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s arson investigators arrested Robert Jordan, 34, at his home Monday near 250th Street West and Avenue A in the sparsely populated northwest Antelope Valley. Jordan allegedly used a cigarette lighter Saturday afternoon to set a fire that burned a quarter of an acre of grass on property containing a house and a feed store near 250th Street West and Avenue C-15, deputies said.

The fire, which residents extinguished before firefighters arrived, bore little resemblance to a spate of suspicious brush fires this month in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys. Jordan is not a suspect in any other fires, authorities said.

The owner of the house and feed store told firefighters that the fire was set by his neighbor after an argument, county Fire Capt. Michael Glosson said. Deputies acting on a tip later arrested Jordan, who was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail at the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station.