Summit Fire: Suspect pleads not guilty

Friday, June 12, 2009

Summit Fire: Suspect pleads not guilty

Los Gatos landscape contractor Channing Parker Verden pleaded not guilty yesterday to one felony count of unlawfully causing a fire.

Mr. Verden was charged with allegedly failing to fully extinguish piles of burning debris that sparked the Summit Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2008.

Channing Parker Verden, 50, of Los Gatos, was arrested in April by investigators from Cal Fire and the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office after an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Summit Fire that erupted May 22, 2008.

Documents and statements filed with the district attorney's office allege that the owner of the property at 31000 Summit Road hired Verden to clear debris on the land later identified as the origin of the fire. Cal Fire investigators found remains of large burn piles that did not appear to be extinguished properly.

Verden is scheduled to return to Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 30 for the setting of a preliminary hearing.

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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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Friday, June 12, 2009