Firefighter Robert Hernandez was arrested Friday on arson charges. Anyone who’s instincts cause them to run into burning buildings can be expected to seem odd in other ways. Even so, intentionally starting five brush fires is more than a little over the top. The last thing Northern California needs right now is more fires.
Five arson fires
Arson is a serious crime. Especially in the tinder dry state of California, half of which is blazing already. On Friday, September 20, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection employee Robert Hernandez was arrested.
Officials are convinced he “started five brush fires in Northern California in recent weeks.” The 38-year-old was taken into custody from his job site, “the Howard Forest Fire Station in Healdsburg.”
The state agency notes Hernandez has been booked on “suspicion of arson to forest land.” Until his arrest, Hernandez served as “an apparatus engineer.” That means “operating and maintaining fire engines and water tanks during emergency responses.”
One way to make sure you have plenty to do is set a few fires yourself. He apparently considered what he was doing job security.
Nobody seems to know if Hernandez has a lawyer yet but he definitely needs one. As Cal Fire relates, “Hernandez ignited the blazes while off duty between August 14 and September 15 in forest land near Geyserville, Healdsburg and Windsor.”
The arson incidents weren’t big blazes but that’s not the point. Combined, the five fires “burned less than an acre thanks to the quick action of residents and firefighters.”
Violate public trust
Cal Fire Director and Fire Chief Joe Tyler was “appalled to learn one of our employees would violate the public’s trust and attempt to tarnish the tireless work of the 12,000 women and men of CAL FIRE.” Arson gives firemen a bad name. They’re supposed to be on the other team.
While they’d love to tell everyone all the gory details, their lawyers advise against that. “Ari Hirschfield, a Cal Fire spokesperson, said in an email that the agency would not answer further questions about the arrest.”
Arson is the cause of at least two of the biggest fires burning out of control across California. Last week, “a delivery driver pleaded not guilty to starting the massive Line Fire on September 5.”
That one “forced the evacuation of thousands of people east of Los Angeles, injured a firefighter and destroyed a home.” Justin Wayne Halstenberg faces 11 charges for that one.
Back in July, Ronnie Dean Stout “was arrested on suspicion of starting the Park Fire in Northern California by pushing a burning car into a gully.” That broke numerous state records.
Stout has also been “charged with felony arson of an inhabited structure or property.” It was his mother’s car he torched and rolled into the ravine full of dry brush. He tried to casually walk away and almost made it. A bystander took his picture with their phone.
