Arsonists Arrested on the West Coast

With huge swaths of Washington, Oregon, and California suffering from raging wildfires, five people have been arrested in the three states for intentionally setting fires.   Peter Aitken of Fox News reports that the Police Chief in Ashland, Oregon believes that there is good reason to believe that the Almeda fire, which has killed two and destroyed hundreds of homes, was intentionally set.  Police have arrested 41-year-old Michael Bakkela after witnesses reported seeing him set fires near homes.  In California a woman was arrested for setting  fires along the coast highway near Monterey.   In separate incidents, two unidentified men were arrested in Washington for setting fires near state highways.

Travis Fedschun of Fox News reports that Domingo Lopez, 45, was arrested Sunday afternoon for setting fires along I-205 near Portland.  Police seized a Molotov cocktail during the arrest.  Due to Oregon’s compassionate sentencing policies, Lopez was released within hours of his arrest.  Early Monday morning Lopez was arrested again for setting multiple fires along the same freeway.  No word on whether he has been released again.

While there may or may not be evidence indicating that some of the west coast fires have been set by the same anarchists that have, since early June,  been setting fires in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Oakland and dozens of other communities in the west, it is certainly worth looking into.