Alleged arsonist's motives remain vague after death

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Alleged arsonist's motives remain vague after death

By GREG WELTER -Staff Writer

Article Launched: 08/28/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

OROVILLE — Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said accused serial arson suspect James Kenneth Hough never really gave a good reason for setting dozens of wildland blazes.

Hough, 56, hung himself from a bed sheet in the Butte County Jail early on Friday, and died Saturday afternoon at Oroville Medical Center. Ramsey said arson investigators were ready to question Hough's family about his activities Friday, but postponed it because of the suicide attempt.

He said Hough talked about the stresses in his life, but took the reasoning for his alleged arson spree, which may date back to 2005, to his grave.

Hough was arrested July 10 near a campground in Chester after Cal Fire investigators tracked him from the scene of a fire in the Lassen National Forest.

He is accused of starting the Colby fire, while on his way to go camping with his family. The blaze burned 167 acres on Colby Mountain, and closed Highway 32 for three days.

Hough, a Live Oak resident, was facing nine counts of arson in Butte County, including the Colby fire, and up to 27 more for fires he allegedly set in Yuba and Sutter counties. He would have faced charges first in Butte County.

"The closest he came to giving us a motive was on the Colby fire," Ramsey said. "I hated that mountain," Ramsey said Hough had told investigators, without elaborating why.

Hough, who worked as a manager for a Marysville soft drink bottling company, and had 37 years on the job, occasionally stuck

around to watch the fires he had started. Ramsey said Hough made no claim to getting sexual pleasure from the arsons.

The suspect was being tracked by a satellite-based global positioning system, and investigators knew he had taken what Ramsey called a "tour" of several fires he had set in late July in the Oroville area. At one time, investigators said, Hough was attempting to set enough fires to burn a "ring" around the Sutter Buttes. Hough pleaded not guilty to the arson charges Aug. 15, which Ramsey said was not unexpected. "He was basically telling us to prove it," Ramsey said. Investigators discovered that Hough used "ground bloom" fireworks to start most of the blazes. "It was his favorite and distinctive method," Ramsey said.

He described the fireworks, which are included among the "safe and sane" variety, as a device which spins and jumps around on the ground, shooting out sparks and smoke of various colors. "The fires started in late June, just about the time the fireworks stands opened in Live

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007