CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS : CCCFPD: Walnut Creek Arsonist arrested

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

CCCFPD: Walnut Creek Arsonist arrested

Man, 62, Suspected Of Starting Fires Arrested

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Walnut Creek police have arrested a 62-year-old man suspected of starting several fires near his Rossmoor home, fire investigators said Tuesday.
Investigators with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District first became aware of the fires on a small parcel of land on Vista Del Valle in Lafayette in January.
The property consists of 90 acres of mostly grass-covered land that also contains three homes, fire officials said. While investigating those incidents, they learned of another fire in the same area in May 2011 that had gone unreported.
Last month, investigators received reports of a third fire on the same property that was similar to the other two.
Witnesses to the third fire led investigators to Brent Robert Kastroff, who lives in Rossmoor, a senior community in Walnut Creek adjacent to the property where the fires were discovered.
Fire officials said Kastroff admitted to setting the fires but said he had merely lit some pieces of paper on fire, which caused small grass fires.
Fire investigators obtained a warrant for Kastroff's arrest and police took him into custody on Friday, fire officials said. He was booked into county jail and his bail was set at $225,000, fire officials said.
Kastroff was previously arrested in San Rafael in 1998 for setting fire to papers in a trash can, investigators said.
Investigators said that while Kastroff told them he didn't think he did anything wrong, his actions could have led to larger fires that would have caused major damage.

Source: KCRA - Link
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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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