The weather service reports that most of eastern Montana is under an excessive heat watch from Saturday afternoon through Wednesday night. Gusty winds up to 30 miles an hour, with low humidity combined with scattered wet and dry thunderstorm lightning strikes will create critical fire conditions.Ī red flag warning means that critical fire conditions are either occurring or will shortly. The National Weather Service has a red flag warning in effect until 9 p.m. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Alder Creek Fire is burning more than 2,400 acres in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. “We’ve had some more success with the number of arrests we’ve made, but we haven’t seen a significant jump in the number of arson fires,” Gianni Muschetto, the staff chief of Cal Fire’s law enforcement division, said in October.The Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office has issued an evacuation order for all 17 houses in the Alder Creek area as a nearby wildfire burns south of highway 43 and the Wise River. Arrests for arson have doubled from 70 in 2019 to 140 this year, which officials attribute to law enforcement investigations rather than a significant increase in the number of incidents. The arrests of the alleged arsonists has attracted widespread attention this year as California endured another destructive fire season, however arson isn’t all that common.Īrson was found to be the cause of about 9% of the 3,086 fires the state’s firefighting agency responded to in 2019. The district attorney’s office said the case was developed with the US Forest Service, California’s firefighting agency and the California department of justice, with help from the Sacramento county district attorney’s crime lab. So I urge everyone to wait and hear what really happened before they form any opinions,” Reichel added. that proves any of the prosecution’s evidence yet. “There has been no evidence submitted into a court subject to my cross-examination. The pair have a scheduled court appearance on Friday, Reichel said. They’re very law-abiding people,” he said. “Neither one has ever been in trouble with the law in their life. The son made several 911 calls because the calls kept dropping in the rugged area, and both men also warned campers about the fire, Reichel said. The son called 911 to report seeing flames, Reichel said. He said Travis Smith is an electrician and was with his father near where the fire started. Reichel said he did not know details of the accusation, such as how authorities allege the fire was set. Reichel, the men’s lawyer, said: “They are absolutely 100% innocent.” The El Dorado county district attorney, Vern Pierson, provided few details about the arrest of the Smiths, citing the investigation.

It was one of two massive fires last summer that for the first time in modern history crossed the Sierra Nevada range. The fire crossed through three northern counties, destroyed much of the small community of Grizzly Flats and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the resort town of South Lake Tahoe before it was contained in October. The fire destroyed more than 1,000 houses and other buildings while crossing a mostly remote forested area of seasonal cabins.

The Caldor fire scorched more than 346 sq miles (897 sq km) from east of Sacramento to the Nevada border, threatening ski resorts and other prominent recreational areas. Mark Reichel, the attorney for both men, said they were arrested Wednesday afternoon and that reckless arson means starting a blaze by accident but “to such a degree that it was considered reckless”.Īuthorities allege they caused houses to burn and people to be seriously injured in the fire that began in August.

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