We're Still Here, But One Arsonist Isn't

Speaking of the flag he had just loaded into his pickup, Jess Morris said, "You can always try and find one thing to hang onto." Morris' 136-acre ranch in Modjeska Canyon was destroyed by fire yesterday. (OC Register)

We're still here, even as the threatening Santiago Canyon Fire grows and containment shrinks. Fortunately, most of the growth is to the northeast, into the Cleveland National Forest and away from us.

But one worrying arm is heading south, slowly towards us. I came home at 8:30 last night from a client's board meeting, and at the stop sign a couple blocks from our house, I could see a wall of flames in the not-too-distant distance, looking decidedly evil against the black night sky.

All of this worry, danger, effort and expense is the work of one person -- almost certainly a man. OC Fire Chief Chip Prager told the media yesterday that the fire was set in three locations by someone who understood fire dynamics and knew how to use starting points and wind to ensure a large, difficult-to-fight fire.

They're offering $70,000 for info; I know plenty of folks who would contribute to make it much more -- folks who aren't troubled by reading this:

Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region ... police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino. ...

The confrontation that ended in the shooting death started about 6 p.m. Tuesday when San Bernardino university police spotted a man in a rural area of flood channels and scrub near the campus. University police tried to detain the man, but he got into his car and fled, authorities said. When he began to ram officers' vehicle, they shot him.

The suspect is described as a 27-year-old man with a home address in Arizona. Sheriff's investigators will search his impounded pickup truck pending a search warrant, Lt. Scott Patterson of the San Bernardino Police Department said this afternoon. (LA Times)

I was thinking this morning that California must attract arsonists from all over America because it really is the ideal place for nutcases who want to cause the kind of grief we've been suffering through -- and there you have it, an Arizonan coming our way to get his sick jollies.