Anaheim Hills Fires Spark Search for Arson Suspects

Authorities are aggressively looking for a group of teen-agers or young adults suspected of starting seven brush fires within six hours in and around Anaheim Hills over the weekend.

“Our grave concern is that they will strike again and we could have a repeat of what happened last year,” said Bret Colson, a city spokesman, referring to the October wildfires that destroyed thousands of acres in Anaheim Hills and Laguna Canyon. “That would be absolutely devastating, and it makes these people extremely dangerous.”

The brush fires, ranging in size from one acre to 50 acres, occurred between 7 p.m. Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday, he said, mostly in vacant fields in and around neighborhoods in Anaheim Hills and the nearby unincorporated county area.

“We don’t ordinarily get that many arson calls in a year up there, and this time we got seven in one night,” Colson said. “We’re just fortunate that weather conditions were such that these flames were not aggravated.”

No damage or injuries were reported, he said.

But during one of the fires, Colson said, a resident saw two or three white males in their late teens or early 20s driving away from the scene. The occupants of the car shined a flashlight at the resident’s eyes to prevent him from getting a license number, Colson said. The witness was able to describe the car, however: a 1984 or 1985 dark blue Ford Mustang hatchback with no hubcaps on the right side, silver metal louvers over the rear window and a primer spot on its rear fender.

Suspicions were further aroused less than 24 hours later, on Saturday night, when a car fitting that description drove by a firehouse in the area, slowed to almost a crawl, then sped away when the battalion chief began to approach it.

“It was almost as if they were casing the fire station,” Colson said.

Anaheim fire investigator Mike Doty said: “Our concern is that they’re so brazen that they will continue until they are successful in causing a major fire. Naturally, we want to get it stopped and apprehend them before they have that opportunity.”

Late last year, a 17-year-old was sentenced to eight months in custody for setting the 1993 Anaheim Hills fire that destroyed two homes, threatened 29 others and burned 750 acres. The fire came shortly before a similar blaze scorched thousands of acres and damaged or destroyed more than 400 homes in Laguna Beach.

Colson said authorities want to talk to anyone with any information on the weekend fires.

“The more time that goes by, the more chance there is that these people could do this again.”

Arson, according to Doty, is a felony punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment for the first offense. Anyone with information on the weekend fires is asked to call the Anaheim Fire Department at (714) 254-4047.