By Melissa Pinion-Whitt Staff Writer
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Jeremiah D. Hope, 25, took his friends to check out the Old Fire after he was evacuated from his mountain retreat. He took several friends off-roading into an area of dry ferns and grass. He was charged with causing forest lands to burn and putting his vehicle in a dangerous place, both misdemeanors.
When he stopped his car, the dry brush ignited and started a second blaze, officials said.
Authorities, who called it the Playground Fire, said that blaze eventually became a part of the Old Fire, which consumed about 91,000 acres of vegetation and about 1,000 homes. While no one burned to death in the fire, authorities attributed six deaths to it.
Federal prosecutors also filed charges against nine other people for engaging in negligent and illegal activities that sparked wildfires. One of the suspects, Steven Emory Butcher, 48, has been indicted on eight charges related to the 2006 Day Fire, most of which was in the Los Padres National Forest.
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