News: Man Pleads Guilty To Starting Vista Brush Fire

Monday, March 17, 2008

News: Man Pleads Guilty To Starting Vista Brush Fire

VISTA, Calif. -- A 19-year-old man who set a small brushfire in Vista at the height of the recent San Diego County wildfires pleaded guilty Monday to one count of arson of forest land.

Gorgonio Nava admitted starting the fire, but he disputed an allegation that he set the Oct. 23 blaze while San Diego County was under a state-declared emergency. After a one-hour hearing, Judge Joel Pressman ruled against Nava on the allegation.

The defendant faces up to nine years in state prison when he's sentenced on June 6 -- a maximum of six years for the arson and three years for the enhancement that the crime occurred during the emergency.

In a preliminary hearing last November, San Diego County sheriff's bomb-arson Investigator Robert Luke testified that Nava told him he and his younger brother were walking home from a store when they tore a sign off a telephone pole, set it aflame with a lighter and placed it under vegetation.

Nava told him they thought it would be fun, but realized they made a mistake when they saw the flames, Luke said.

The fire blackened a 200-square-foot patch of vegetation in the 1300 block of Calera Street.

Witnesses guided deputies to the apartment of Nava and his brother, whose case was handled separately in Juvenile Court.

About the allegation, Ron Lane, the county director of emergency services, testified that a state emergency proclamation took effect for seven Southern California counties, including San Diego, on Oct. 21.

Defense attorney Jeff Reichert said his client was not aware of the proclamation.

"How could you not know?" Deputy District Attorney Roy Lai asked the judge rhetorically. "The whole county was burning."

Source: 10news.com

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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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Monday, March 17, 2008