Authorities in Northern California final week introduced the arrest of a lady who they are saying ignited a wind-whipped wildfire that rapidly tore by way of steep, rugged terrain, destroying 144 buildings, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of individuals and changing into one of many state’s extra harmful blazes this yr.
The lady, Alexandra Souverneva, 30, a onetime yoga instructor from the San Francisco Bay Space whom a former colleague recalled as “good,” is amongst greater than 100 individuals who have been accused of wildland arson and arrested this yr by the California Division of Forestry and Fireplace Safety, or Cal Fireplace.
The cost alleges a uncommon however important act that has come into sharper focus as parched, overgrown forests explode throughout hundreds of acres in days.
“It’s tough to know when catastrophe like that is, apparently, not a pure catastrophe, however now we have a suspect, and this is perhaps an arson case,” Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson stated throughout a neighborhood assembly Saturday.
Souverneva has pleaded not responsible.
Wildfires are normally unintentional, ignited by broken energy traces, automobiles and logging gear, stated Ed Nordskog, a longtime arson investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division and a co-author of “Arson Investigation within the Wildlands.”
Whereas most wildfire companies attribute about 10 % of blazes to arson, Nordskog stated the actual quantity might be twice as excessive — a results of a long time of officers’ prioritizing suppression over investigations.
“Should you do not ship an investigator, you do not have arson,” he stated.
The intentional setting of a wildland hearth can have swift, profound penalties. As Nordskog put it: “They actually have the ability of atomic bomb at their fingertips. They will burn a complete city down if the situations are proper.”
In 2006, as an example, a wind-driven blaze burned throughout 40,000 acres in Southern California, destroying dozens of properties and killing 5 firefighters. Raymond Oyler, a mechanic from Riverside County, was convicted of arson and homicide and sentenced to demise.
In 2008, a former volunteer firefighter from Northern California, Robert Eason, was convicted of setting a dozen fires north of Sacramento, together with one which burned 1,000 acres and killed 200 sheep. Investigators stated Eason used a complicated time-delay system to ignite the fires.
In contrast to city arsonists, whose ages, genders and races differ, wildland arsonists are typically middle-age males, stated Nordskog, who additionally wrote “The Arsonist Profiles: Analyzing Arson Motives and Habits.” Though lighters and matches are the popular strategies of ignition, some individuals, like Eason, use time-delay units, corresponding to matches wrapped round a cigarette, he stated.
“After they burst into flames, they’re seven to fifteen miles away,” Nordskog stated.
Though some arsonists act for thrills, Nordskog stated, anger, frustration and psychological sickness are extra frequent motives. Simply as frequent is how daunting the investigations may be. They’re typically in distant areas, with ignition factors that might be devastated as firefighters work to extinguish the blazes, he stated.
Fireplace officers stated Souverneva was arrested Wednesday night time after she emerged from the comb close to a hearth line northeast of Redding in Shasta County. She had a working lighter in her pocket, Shasta County District Lawyer Stephanie Bridgett stated Friday, and advised firefighters that she was dehydrated and wanted medical therapy.
Based on a Cal Fireplace report obtained by the File Searchlight, an area newspaper, Souverneva stated she was climbing to Canada and tried boiling water that she present in a puddle. Her makes an attempt failed, the report stated, however she drank the water anyway — she believed it was blended with bear urine — then walked uphill and noticed smoke and airplanes “dropping pink stuff.”
Souverneva was taken into custody on suspicion of arson.
Due to a declared state of emergency, Souverneva faces an enhanced sentence of 9 years if she is convicted, Bridgett stated. She stated authorities are “conscious” of different fires regionally and across the state that Souverneva “could also be linked to.” Bridgett declined to supply further particulars.
Bridgett, who additionally declined to debate a potential motive, stated there was no indication that Souverneva was underneath the affect of medication or alcohol. Nor did she seem mentally unwell, Bridgett stated, though witnesses who noticed her earlier stated she was appearing “irrationally,” Cal Fireplace stated in an announcement.
Souverneva pleaded not responsible to felony arson. Her legal professional, Shana Vegvary, stated that Souverneva was “asserting her innocence” and that “no proof has been introduced on the contrary.”
“We request that the general public not prejudge this case,” she stated.
Kinfolk within the Bay Space didn’t reply to requests for remark. A former colleague and teacher who taught Souverneva at Avalon Yoga Worldwide, in Palo Alto, recalled her as an excellent pupil who attended the California Institute of Expertise and labored for pharmaceutical corporations earlier than she burned out on “large money-grubbing companies.”
“I believed she was an idealistic child,” stated Steve Farmer, the chief government of Avalon. “She was into conservation and forests.”
Farmer stated he hadn’t seen her because the coronavirus pandemic began, when Avalon shuttered, though he deliberate to rehire her after it reopened. “She would have been the final individual I might have thought to become involved in one thing like this,” he stated.
As of Monday, the hearth in Shasta County had destroyed dozens of properties and grown to almost 9,000 acres, in accordance with Cal Fireplace. Firefighters had surrounded half of the blaze with containment traces.
