Ten years ago on this date, October 25, 2003, a wildfire started in San Bernardo, California. Unit 1012 will remember those who died in the wildfire caused by an arsonist, Rickie Lee Fowler.
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Fire_%282003%29
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Old Fire
burning in the San Bernardino Mountains. Looking west
from Strawberry Peak. Photo taken on October 26,
2003 by Dave
Schumaker.
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Location
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San
Bernardino Mountains
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Date(s)
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October
25, 2003
17:37 (PDT) |
Burned area
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91,281
acres (369.40 km2)
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Ignition source
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Arson
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Land use
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Mixed,
residential and wildlands
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Fatalities
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6
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The Old Fire was a wildfire
that started on October 25, 2003 near Old Waterman Canyon Road and California
State Route 18 in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County of
southern California.
It was one of over a dozen wildfires
burning in Southern California wildlands at the same time. This included the
huge Cedar Fire, the second largest fire in California's history after the Santiago
Canyon Fire of 1889.
Old Fire wildfire
Fanned by the Santa Ana winds, the Old
Fire burned 91,281 acres (369.40 km2), destroyed 993 homes and
caused 6 deaths. The fire threatened San Bernardino and Highland, as well as
the mountain resort communities of Cedar Glen, Crestline, Running Springs and Lake
Arrowhead and forcing upwards of 80,000 residents to evacuate their homes. Part
of California State University, San Bernardino burned during the fire.
The fire was fully contained by
November 2, 2003 with the help of rain and snow. The final cost of the fire was
$42 million. The Lake Arrowhead community is now part of a Redevelopment Agency
which is controlled by a Board of Supervisors.
Old
Fire, Padua, and Grand Prix wildfires
A USFS report on the "true"
combined costs of the 2003 Old Fire, Padua, and the Grand Prix wildfires (the
Grand Prix Fire merged with the Old Fire and the part of the Grand Prix Fire
that crossed into Los Angeles County was known as the "Padua Fire")
was nearly $1.3 billion. When cleanup, watershed damages and other costs are
considered beyond the expenses for firefighting and property damage, wildfire
impacts are much higher. About 750,000 acres (3,000 km2) were
blackened across five southern California counties.
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On Sunday, October 26, the Advanced Spaceborne
Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) captured this image of the
Old Fire/Grand Prix fire burning on either side of Interstate 15 near the Cajon
Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains, roughly 80 km (50 mi) east of Los
Angeles, CA. When this image was acquired, the fire had burned more than 80,000
acres, consumed 450 structures, and caused 2 fatalities. Most of the local
communities were evacuated as the fire continued to spread rapidly, fanned by
the intense Santa Ana winds.
The image combines ASTER bands 4, 3, and 1 to
produce a thermal infrared look at the scene. The bright red-orange ribbon
snaking along the northern side of the burn is the actively burning fire front,
while the darker crimson patch shows the smoldering burn scar. ASTER is one of
five instruments aboard NASA's Terra satellite.
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| Rickie Lee Fowler (PHOTO SOURCE: http://crimevoice.com/old-fire-arsonist-now-faces-death-penalty-15645/rickie-lee-fowler/) |
Causes: arson and accidental ignition
In 2009, Rickie Lee Fowler was charged
with igniting the Old Fire. Authorities charged that he was a passenger in a
white van seen leaving the area where the fire started, and that Fowler was the
person seen throwing a lit flare into brush by the side of the road. The driver
of the van, Martin David Valdez, Jr., died of a gunshot wound in 2006. A grand
jury indicted Fowler on October 19, 2009, with one count of arson of an
inhabited structure, one count of aggravated arson, and five counts of murder,
based on five residents in the burn evacuation areas who died of heart attacks.
Although a sixth man also died of a heart attack after the fire was set,
prosecutors were unable to directly link that death to the stress of the fire.
Similarly, although the fire stripped the soil of vegetation and destabilized
the slopes, no one was charged in the deaths of fourteen people killed two
months later when a mudslide ripped through a camp in Waterman Canyon.
On January 21, 2010, the San
Bernardino County prosecutor announced that he would seek the death penalty.
Fowler then recanted his confession, saying that he had admitted to the crime
only to appease authorities so that he could be transferred to a prison closer
to his mother.
In September 2011, Fowler moved to
dismiss the indictment because the prosecutors had failed to present
exculpatory evidence to the grand jury. In January 2012 he was reportedly
discussing a plea bargain, but no plea bargain was reached and the case went to
trial.
The trial started July 2012 in San
Bernardino. rescheduled from January, Prosecutors charged special circumstances
which can bring the death penalty. On August 15, 2012, Fowler was convicted of
five counts of murder and two counts of arson. On September 28, 2012, the jury
returned a verdict of death. The death verdict was affirmed by the trial judge
on January 28, 2013.
On August 7, 2007, local newspapers
reported that 25-year-old Jeremiah D. Hope, of Riverside, faced federal charges
for starting a blaze that eventually merged with the Old Fire. Authorities said
Hope had been evacuated from his Crestline home when he and some friends
off-roaded onto dry vegetation in order to get a better view of the Old Fire.
The vehicle's catalytic converter reportedly sparked a second fire near
Playground Road, which firefighters dubbed the Playground Fire. That fire
quickly consumed forest land and later became part of the Old Fire. Hope faced
misdemeanor counts of causing the National Forest to burn without a permit and
one count of placing a vehicle in a dangerous area.
Victims
The victims identified were Charles
Howard Cunningham, 93, of San Bernardino; Ralph Eugene McWilliams, 67, of Cedar
Glen; Chad Leo Williams, 70, of Crestline; James William McDermoth, 70, of San
Bernardino; and Robert Norman Taylor, 54, of San Bernardino. All five victims
died from indirect consequences of the fire, due to heart attacks brought on by
physical or emotional strain.
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On Sunday, October 26, the Advanced
Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) captured this
image of the Old Fire/Grand Prix fire burning on either side of Interstate 15
near the Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains, roughly 80 km (50 mi) east
of Los Angeles, CA. When this image was acquired, the fire had burned more than
80,000 acres, consumed 450 structures, and caused 2 fatalities. Most of the
local communities were evacuated as the fire continued to spread rapidly,
fanned by the intense Santa Ana winds.
The image in simulated natural color shows
the how the scene would look from above to a human eye.
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/01/death-penalty-forest-fire-arson-families-react.html
Families react to death penalty in forest fire
arson case
9:17 PM
CST, January 28, 2013
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Convicted Old Fire arsonist Rickie Lee
Fowler, is all smiles in court during his sentencing hearing Monday in San
Bernardino Superior Court. Fowler was convicted of five counts of first-degree
murder and two counts of arson in connection with starting the 2003 wildfire.
(LaFonzo Carter/Staff Photographer) (PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_22464713/rickie-lee-fowler-set-sentencing-today)
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The
children of a victim of the 2003 Old Fire in San Bernardino County told the
judge who sentenced the convicted arsonist to death Monday that the defendant's
actions had destroyed their lives.
“It’s
still very hard for me to think about the week that turned my world upside
down,” said Ashley Taylor, who was 15
when her father, Robert Taylor, died of a heart attack after evacuating during
the fire. “I still feel the pain every day."
Rickie
Lee Fowler was sentenced to death Monday for setting the blaze at the base of
the San Bernardino Mountains in September 2003.
“Rickie
Fowler should be put to death," Superior
Court Judge Michael A. Smith said inside the San Bernardino courtroom, adding
that the evidence of Fowler’s guilt and life of violence were overwhelming.
With his
eyes fixed on the judge, Fowler showed no response as the sentence was read in
open court. He sat alone in the jury box wearing a forest green jail jumpsuit,
clutching a piece of paper.
After the
hearings, Fowler’s attorney, Don Jordan, said his client was made a “scapegoat”
by the district attorney’s office and law enforcement agencies, which were
under immense pressure to solve the arson.
The death
sentence will automatically be appealed to the California Supreme Court.
Jordan,
in an hour-long statement before the sentencing, said evidence has surfaced
indicating that Fowler was at a friend’s house when the Old Fire broke out.
Deputy
Dist. Atty. Robert Bullock, who prosecuted the case, said after the sentencing,
“The evidence in the case is overwhelming. Thankfully
for the victim and the community, there’s finally a conclusion.’’
After the
hearing, the son of Robert Taylor said the death sentence offered some justice
for his family and the thousands who suffered because of the devastating
wildfire. “I’m glad he’s going to death row,’’
said Jesse Taylor. “He’s hurt a lot of people over the
years. Not just my father."
The
prosecutor said Fowler deliberately set the blaze in Waterman Canyon in a fit
of rage against his godfather, who had kicked Fowler out of his house at the
top of the canyon.
The fire
broke out Oct. 25, 2003, at Old Waterman Canyon Road and California State
Highway 18. Flames raced through the forest and brush, forcing the evacuation
of more than 30 communities and 80,000 people. Six men died of heart attacks,
although prosecutors said one could not be directly attributed to stress from
the fire.
A few
months later, on Christmas Day, a huge debris flow caused by rain on the
denuded slopes of the burn area swept through a church camp in Waterman Canyon,
killing 14 people. Fowler was not charged in that incident.
Investigators
said they questioned Fowler shortly after the fire but did not have enough
evidence to arrest him. Another suspect, Martin Valdez, 24, was fatally shot in
Muscoy, near San Bernardino, in 2006. At the time of the fire, witnesses
reported seeing Fowler and Valdez in a white van throwing a flaming object into
Waterman Canyon.
Much of
the prosecution's case hinged on comments Fowler made in 2008 in which he
acknowledged to investigators that he was attempting to burn down the home of a
friend, but denied that he was the one who set the blaze. Fowler told
investigators that he went to the back of the van and took out a flare, but
that Valdez grabbed the flare and tossed it.
-- Phil
Willon in San Bernardino
Copyright
© 2013, Los Angeles Times
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