海莉·史密斯（Hayley Smith）
Los Angeles Times
(MCT)
A college professor. A Caltech grad. A woman in a bikini. And, just this month, a father and son.
A confounding collection of Californians have been accused of contributing to one of the worst wildfire seasons in state history — a season that saw three killed, thousands of homes leveled and more than 2.5 million acres burned.
While fires ignited by downed power lines and lightning have caused widespread destruction in recent years, this last wildfire season was unique for the number of large fires that were linked to arson. At the same time, wildfire arson arrests have been climbing over the last few years: In 2021, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported 140 arrests by their law enforcement division — 20 more than last year anddouble the number2019年。
对一些人来说,明显surge in arson incidents has been a troubling new development in California’s ever-worsening wildfire regime, and it has even given rise to a raft of conspiracy theories. Yet experts say the attention-grabbing headlines and uptick in arrests belie an enduring truth — arson represents only a fraction of California’s fire starts each year.
What has changed, they say, is that bone-dry drought conditions and overgrown forests have enabled even the smallest of sparks toexplode into an inferno。
“Once they put that fire on the ground, they have no control over how it will grow,” said Gianni Muschetto, chief of Cal Fire’s law enforcement division.
在加利福尼亚州，立法者区分了两种类型的纵火：故意，恶意纵火和鲁ck的纵火，例如当一个人用干刷打开烟花时，Muschetto说。确定野火的来源是执法方面较高的技术工作之一，2019年（他拥有数据的最新一年）不确定了加利福尼亚州大多数野火的原因。电气设备约为12％，而照明为6％。
But arson was also a factor, sparking about 9% of fires in 2019, and roughly 8% to 10% of the state’s wildfires in any given year. In 2021, when Cal Fire responded to more than 8,600 fires, that could mean as many as 800 blazes.
加里·梅纳德（Gary Maynard）是一位涉嫌纵火犯，是一位前大学教授加里·梅纳德（Gary Maynard），与“arson-setting spree”在迪克西大火的地点附近第二大野火in California’s recorded history.
梅纳德（Maynard）在7月和8月被指控在Shasta Trinity和Lassen国家森林中故意起火。一些火焰被放在火线和疏散区域后面，调查人员在一个情况下识别木棍，报纸材料和地面上燃烧的区域的木制比赛。
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, his attorney said via email.
Witnesses at the scene said Maynard appeared mentally unstable. Officials confirmed that he had previously worked at two California universities, where he taught seminars in criminology and criminal justice.
The circumstances around Maynard and other alleged arsonists prompted a wave of speculation among far-right groups and conspiracy theorists, with some falsely suggesting thatAntifa的成员有意将火作为精心制作的政治情节的一部分。
But the motives for arson are more complex than that, said Glenn Corbett, an associate professor of fire science and public administration at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
科贝特说：“人们开始开火的原因有很多，”列出了恶意，鲁ck，报仇，心理健康问题，甚至只是“不良行为”等例子。
The latest string of high-profile cases “to some extent trend with social upheaval,” Corbett said, including the COVID-19 pandemic and growing political and economic divides. “Sometimes those end up being ‘trigger events’ that sort of release people to do things that they probably wouldn’t normally do.”
But arson-related fires are especially dangerous given the record-setting heat and drought across the Western United States, which have dried the state’s landscape and primed it to burn — leading tofaster, hotter and more intense wildfires比以往任何时候都。
“The volume, the size, the ferocity of fire is tied directly to what’s burning,” Corbett said. “High levels of dryness and low levels of humidity and no rain … that’s a prime situation for having a fire, and certainly one that is very difficult to contain.”
One fire that grew quickly out of control was theFawn fire in Shasta County, which was allegedly ignited by a 31-year-old Caltech student named Alexandra Souverneva, who was found with CO2 cartridges and a lighter near where the fire ignited.
The Fawn fire grew quickly amid dry timber and heavy winds. By the end of its 10-day run, it had injured three firefighters, destroyed 185 buildings and charred more than 8,500 acres.
12月，法官发现她mentally unfit to stand trial。Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
But legal experts say her case and others like it raise important questions about how the state responds to instances of arson, which often involve external factors like homelessness, mental health and drug use.
“The issue is not whether the punishment fits the crime — it’s that the punishment of incarceration doesn’t necessarily get to the root of the problem,” said Louis Shapiro, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender in Los Angeles.
“Most arsonists have mental health issues which if were timely treated, would avoid the arson fires from starting altogether,” he said. “[The] government needs to get ahead of these issues and proactively help those with mental health issues, rather than react to the damage after the fact. That is where the focus needs to be.”
曾研究纵火的法医心理学家乔尔·德沃斯金（Joel Dvoskin）说，要区分精神残障人士和经历情感危机的人很重要。
“When people do arson that’s only intended to cause destruction, that’s a despairing thing to do, and we live in a time when a lot of people are experiencing fear, anger and despair,” he said. “Those are the three emotions that cause so much damage in our world, and I doubt that arson is an exception.”
他说，像夏皮罗一样，监禁并不总是答案，特别是因为纵火的理由是如此多种多样和复杂。
In California, the penalties for arson can include fines or several years of imprisonment. Shapiro said the outcome of cases resulting from negligence — such as the 2020 wildfire ignited by apyrotechnic device at a gender-reveal party- 很难预测，很大程度上取决于量刑法官认为该案的方式。
That pyrotechnic fire, dubbed the El Dorado fire, went on to burn more than 22,000 acres andkill a hotshot firefighter。
It’s an example of the kind of fire that might have sputtered in a wetter climate, but instead fed on hot, dry red flag conditions that turned it into a monster, said Ed Nordskog, an arson investigator and co-author of “Arson Investigation in the Wildland.”
“The fuel is so dry because of the climate, and of course if there’s any sort of wind, that fire’s gone off to the races,” he said.
不过,似乎在Califor纵火的趋势nia doesn’t actually reflect an increase in the number of people setting fire to the ground. California has more arson investigators than any other state, Nordskog explained, and is becoming more proficient at catching offenders. States like Colorado that may seem to have fewer instances of arson also don’t have as many investigators contributing to their statistics, he said.
Dmitry Gorin, a defense attorney and former prosecutor, similarly emphasized that the numbers remain small.
“You’re seeing a lot of [cases] in the news now, and they usually happen during the fire season when it’s dry with high winds, so we hear about them,” Gorin said, “but as a matter of percentage of criminal cases in court, they’re pretty rare, even in California.”
Some arsonists are easier to catch than others, such as the woman who admitted to starting a fire near South Lake Tahoe in August after sheemerged from the scenein a bikini and “covered in scratches and soot.” Other cases are more complicated, including the large number of fires that are set by people living in the wildland-urban interface and people struggling with mental health issues and drug use, Nordskog said.
But in nearly all instances, the danger has gotten worse, he said. “Every fire has the potential to be a giant mega-fire.”
Earlier this month, prosecutors filed reckless arson and firearm chargesagainst David and Travis Smith, a father and son, for allegedly starting the卡尔多火near South Lake Tahoe. That blaze, along with the Dixie fire, became the first to ever burn从山脉的一侧到另一侧。It also leveled the Gold Rush-era mountain town of灰熊。
The Smiths’ attorney, Mark Reichel, said via email that they are “100% innocent” and even called for help as soon as they spotted the fire. They intend to beat all charges, he said.
但是，此案的结果对统计数据并不多。卡尔火的Muschetto说，在今年的140名纵火逮捕中，只有29个属于“鲁ck”类别，而111个则是故意的。该机构今年还发表了约360次引用火灾和烟火违规行为。
Still, the confluence of cases and conditions are undeniably creating more challenges for the state’s residents, and for those trying to protect them from the worst effects of wildfire.
Muschetto说：“无论是偶然的行为，闪电还是纵火，这些火灾的风险越来越大，随着气候变化而增加。”
This story originally appeared inLos Angeles Times。
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