Two County Firefighters Suspected of Arson : Arrests: Investigators say Ken Dobbins and Robert Schickel Jr. set fires in Yorba Linda and Moreno Valley. Colleagues are stunned.

Two firefighters with the Orange County Fire Authority have been arrested on suspicion of setting two unrelated fires.

Arson investigators arrested Robert Schickel Jr., 29, of Yorba Linda, a career firefighter, and Ken Dobbins, 38, also of Yorba Linda, a volunteer firefighter, fire Capt. Dan Young said.

Schickel is suspected of setting a car fire in Riverside County last year, and Dobbins is suspected of setting an abandoned house on fire in Yorba Linda in 1993. New information in both cases led to the arrests last weekend, Young said.

News of the arrests stunned county firefighters Tuesday, Young said.

“There’s a lot of anger,” he said. “Most of these guys are wearing skin on the back of their hands that comes from their thighs. They’re never going to understand why someone would go out and do something like this.”

Investigators with the California Department of Forestry originally thought the car fire in Moreno Valley in September 1994 was accidental and caused by an electrical failure. The case was closed.

But it reopened in November when further physical evidence and witness accounts surfaced, leading detectives to Schickel, Young said.

Schickel remains in Riverside County Jail on $25,000 bail.

Dobbins is suspected of setting fire to an abandoned, one-story house that was owned by the city and scheduled for demolition the next day. The first-alarm fire consumed several bedrooms and the attic, Young said.

Fire officials quickly determined that the fire was arson but had few leads at the time, Young said. Later investigations and interviews with other witnesses directed detectives to Dobbins.

“Recently, confidential witnesses--and there may be more than one--said these weren’t accidents,” he said. “They provided investigators with enough information for them to conduct additional surveillance and interviews which gained them more leads that ultimately helped them determine that these fires were arson.”

Dobbins, who worked as a “paid call firefighter,” a volunteer for the Yorba Linda station, had been with the Orange County Fire Authority for more than two years, Young said. Paid call firefighters go through fire academy training and must live within three minutes of the fire station they work for.

Dobbins was released on bail from Orange County Jail. If the district attorney’s office decides to file arson charges, he is expected to be arraigned on Jan. 22, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Fell said.

Schickel, who had been a career firefighter with the Orange County Fire Authority for at least five years, worked at the Stanton station. In addition, he served as a paid call firefighter at the same Yorba Linda station, in his home town. The Riverside district attorney’s office is handling Schickel’s case.

Both cases are being investigated by other agencies, including Brea police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the state Department of Forestry.

When Larry Holms, the county’s director of fire services, issued a memo Tuesday announcing the arrests, “Everyone was stunned,” Young said. “No one had much to discuss.”

Holms called the arrests “significantly disappointing. But it should not reflect on the high quality and performance of the 1,900 other employees here.”

The arrests sent chilling reminders through the department of the two Los Angeles County firefighters who were publicly implicated last year but never prosecuted as arson suspects in the fire that devastated Malibu in 1993.

The two firefighters were not prosecuted because of a lack of evidence.

Times staff writers Lee Romney and Matt Lait contributed to this report.