Calaveras County Towns Turn Up Heat on Arsonist
WILSEYVILLE, Calif. — The ‘49ers came to the Mother Lode country here looking for an easy fortune, but this summer the tinder-dry hillsides are rich with fear and anger--directed at the “Calaveras arsonist,†who has struck 22 times in the county since June 26, destroying thousands of acres of wild land and more than a dozen homes.
In small Calaveras County towns like Wilseyville, bordered by the charred remnants of once lush forests, strangers draw suspicious glances and the talk is of the need for some frontier justice.
“We’re hoping like hell somebody catches him and blows his damn head off,†said Chuck Whiteley, a volunteer firefighter who runs the general store. “They wouldn’t do it but they’d sure think about it,†he said of his outraged neighbors.
Said Cheryl Davis, owner of the beauty salon next door, “I’d like to hang him to a tree and light it.â€
Davis’ house was threatened by the most recent and largest arson fires in the county this year, a pair of blazes set July 19 within an hour of each other and several miles apart. “It was right there on the ridge out back of our house. You could feel it, smell it, hear it crackle,†she recalled.
The fires burned uncontrolled for four days, claiming 10,800 acres and at least six homes in Wilseyville and Railroad Flat. Officials say they may yet find the remains of more remote structures.
“Somewhere there’s a home out there in the way. . . . They don’t realize how quickly these fires can move and how deadly they can be,†said John Shaw, who retired to the Silver Mountain Trailer Park seven years ago.
State forestry officials say the fires seem calculated to sap firefighting resources and are engulfing more acreage, at least in part because conditions are getting worse by the day.
“This is going to be the year to end all years,†said Robert Monsen, a California Department of Forestry operations officer. “The stuff is so ready to burn.â€
The arsonist leaves no more clue to his identity than the remains of a simple match-and-cigarette incendiary device--the most common weapon of the wild land arsonist--so CDF investigators are uncertain if more than one person is responsible for the blazes. Some of the blazes have spread to the neighboring counties of Amador and Tuolumne.
Unless some watchful county resident catches an arsonist in the act, investigators see little hope of finding the Calaveras arsonist. Local banks and merchants, Gov. George Deukmejian and the CDF have posted rewards totaling $16,000 for information leading to an arrest.
Another $17,500 has been offered for information on almost 50 suspicious brush fires set near San Luis Obispo since May 1. Many fire officials predict a record-breaking fire season.
“What we hope for is information from the public about strange vehicles in the areas where they live or the area of the fires,†said CDF investigator Ed Riston.
With another arson fire about every other day for the last month, the people of Calaveras County have already become increasingly vigilant, if not downright paranoid. The county sheriff and the CDF have received more than 50 tips on an arson hot line opened July 22, but still have no suspects.
“Most of us look for cars parked too long, people walking toward the brush,†said one woman.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before these people forget, and it’s not over yet,†said Kathy Tindle from behind the counter at Haag’s Store in Railroad Flat. “Everybody suspects everybody and it’s not going to go away for a while.â€
Motorists Stopped
People tell stories of how residents angrily pull over motorists seen flicking cigarette butts out of their windows. Strangers on remote roads are challenged as possible looters. One widely repeated rumor is that the arsonist may even be a volunteer firefighter or water truck operator, who are paid according to the number of fires they work on. Water truck operators, for example, are paid $80 an hour.
The firefighters and truck operators themselves dismiss such rumors.
According to CDF investigators, the arsonist knows as much about wild land fire as they do. He usually picks the driest, most windy days--just right for fires to race up drought-browned hillsides, throwing sparks up to a quarter mile away and consuming entire canyons of fir and oak.
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