Safety officials look for arsonist

HANSEN DAM PARK — An ongoing homicide investigation cast a cloud over a prayer gathering at the Station fire interagency command center early Friday for two firefighters who died battling the massive blaze, which authorities believe was deliberately set.

After firefighters met for the brief service, Station fire Incident Commander Mike Dietrich briefed reporters on the status of the 148,258-acre blaze and denounced the deadly act of arson that allegedly started it.

“I believe any act of arson in the wild is domestic terrorism,” Dietrich said.

An investigation at the fire’s suspected starting point in La Cañada Flintridge is ongoing, and authorities would not say what led them to believe the blaze — which rapidly expanded into the largest in Los Angeles County history — was started intentionally.

Los Angeles County Fire Department Specialist Arnaldo Quinones, 35, of Palmdale, and Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, died while fighting the fire when their emergency-response vehicle rolled off a mountainous road and fell 800 feet into a canyon.

Their deaths, combined with the fire’s suspected cause, has allowed for a homicide investigation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced.

The fire began Aug. 26, one mile above the Angeles Crest Fire Station off Angeles Crest Highway, and grew to 30 acres by Aug. 27. It spread rapidly, fueled by triple-digit temperatures and dry winds that created a “perfect storm” of conditions to feed the flames, which burned through 5,100 acres by Aug. 28 and to 85,000 acres the following day, authorities said.

The blaze has now consumed 230 square miles of land since it started and, after being out of control for more than a week, was 42% contained as of midday Friday. It has also caused eight injuries and had so far cost more than $28 million to fight.

Dietrich was confident firefighters would continue to make progress in setting a perimeter around the fire. Crews have so far established 112 miles of fire lines around the blaze.

“I believe we can see the corner,” he said. “We’ll be turning it shortly and be moving on to the next roller coaster.”

With the fire now moving mostly into wilderness areas, foothill residents should feel more safe after returning to their homes, Dietrich said. Mandatory evacuations were lifted earlier this week.

“We consider it to be secure,” he said of the foothill communities of La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Glendale. “We’re going to continue to see hot spots in that area popping up, and we have firefighters that are in there primarily responding to 911 calls about fire.”

The sight of smoke has frequently worried residents, but those incidents have occurred in “blackened” areas that fires have already consumed, said Nathan Judy, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

“You have some brush out there that’s smoky,” Judy said. “People get concerned when they see that smoke.”

Although crews are responding to fire calls, they have not been substantial and are mostly because of smoke that is isolated from the Station fire, Dietrich said.

“What happens is that the fire burns into the ground, into the root system, because it’s so dry,” he said. “It’s a charcoal process, smoke opens up a bit, and then, poof.”