Trail of Tire Rubber Leads Investigators to Ojai Man Suspected of Igniting Fire

Ventura County sheriff’s investigators said Tuesday they have arrested an Ojai man on suspicion of igniting a 150-acre wildfire while he was drunkenly trying to light a cigarette.

James Alan Strasser, 42, was spotted in a car leaving Matilija Canyon at high speed on three good tires and a bare steel rim as fire began to sweep through the canyon Friday afternoon, said sheriff’s Capt. Larry Robertson.

Investigators later found the car’s license plate near the fire’s ignition point and followed a trail of shredded tire and gouged asphalt to a mobile home park eight miles down the road, Robertson said.

Witnesses there told detectives that Strasser fled the park on a mountain bike. It was not until 1 a.m. Sunday that deputies finally found Strasser and arrested him as he rode the bike through Ojai, Robertson said.

Meanwhile, the Matilija Canyon fire had devoured 150 acres of brush and trees in Los Padres National Forest, destroyed a hiker’s pickup truck, closed California 33 for more than an hour and had come dangerously close to damaging more than half a dozen homes before firefighters brought it under control.

When deputies arrested him, Strasser admitted that he sparked the fire by dropping a lit match into the brush as he tried to light a cigarette while intoxicated, Robertson said.

Strasser was being held at Ventura County Jail on Tuesday evening on charges of recklessly and negligently starting a fire, Robertson said.

Strasser is being held without bail because of a warrant stemming from a parole violation, Robertson said.

If convicted of negligently starting a fire, Strasser could face up to three years in prison, Robertson said.

“Obviously there’s a fine line between negligence and accident,” Robertson said. “But it’ll be up to the district attorney’s office to make that determination before filing. If he were safe and sane, the fire would not have started in the first place.”

Robertson said that deputies have succeeded in arresting two other wildfire arson suspects this year because the department is working more closely with the U.S. Forest Service and the Ventura County Fire Department.