Hot on the trail of California arsonists

One case involves anti-Mexican nativists

by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - October 29, 2007 - (ACN) Southern California is presently going through hell with the worst fires in history. Though the first fire in Malibu, California started by fallen power lines and furious Santa Ana winds, it did not take long for the pyromaniacs to go to work. At the peak of the fires at least 17 were burning from Ventura County north of Los Angeles to the U.S.-Mexico border. The fires have destroyed over 1,800 homes and burned more than 490,000 acres. Losses in San Diego county alone total at least 1 billion dollars. Over 1 million people had to be evacuated. Many of the fires were started by arsonists.

Last year in October, during the Santa Ana winds, arsonists also started some horrendous fires. One fire, the Esperanza fire, casued the death of five firefighters. Fire investigators arrested one person in the Esperanza fire that fits the profile of those who are starting fires in California. They arrested Raymond Lee Oyler, age 36, from nearby Riverside. Authorities charged Oyler with murder and arson which carries the death penalty District Attorney Rod Pacheco said the evidence against Oyler is "overwhelming." Prosecutors charged him with five counts of murder, 11 counts of arson and 10 counts of use of an incendiary device. The charges include seven fires in June, one in July, one in September and two in October, all in 2006.

So far in the current fires, law enforcement authorities have arrested one suspect and have shot and killed another. In San Bernardino County, John Alfred Rund, 48, of Hesperia was arrested and charged with setting a fire along a rural roadside near Victorville and for possession of flammable materials. Rund, a biker, is being held in lieu of $750,000 bail. Also, in San Bernardino, the police shot a killed a suspected arsonist. The San Bernardino State University Police spotted a man in the foliage near the campus they believed to be an arsonist. When the police tried to detain the man, he got into his car and began to ram an officers' vehicle. He was then shot and killed. The suspect is described as a 27-year-old man with a home address in Arizona. No additional information, including his identity has beeen released.

In addition, the Redlands Police Department is presently seeking a suspect in two fires in the hilly areas of south Redlands , police spokesman Carl Baker said. Witnesses reported seeing a white male in his early 20s driving away in a silver or light gray pickup with junk in the bed. The suspect was described as having short, sandy blond hair and wearing dark clothing, Baker said. Baker asked that anyone with information call the arson investigator for the Redlands Fire Department at 909-798-7600.

In Orange county, fire investigators are looking for an arsonist or arsonists that started one of the worst and most damaging of the fires. The fire was named the "Santiago Fire". Orange County Fire Authority Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion said that whoever started that fire knew what they were doing. Authorities are looking for a white Ford F150 model truck believed to be between the years of 1998-2004 with chrome tubular running boards.

The "Santiago Fire" investigation took a bizzare twist when a phony CNN News website carried a story titled, "Separatists claim responsibility for California Wildfires - MEChA is taking responsibility for setting the wildfires in California." The website was online only for a short time but now a large number of racist anti-Mexican websites are repeating the story as if it is true. There is a very good possibility that those who started the Santiago Fire are the same nativists that created the phony CNN News website. This possibility is worth investigating. A copy of the phony website is at: http://tinyurl.com/25asvt Information on the registrant of the website is at: http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=cnnheadlienews.com&tld=com

Phony CNN News Story

Are the creators of this phony website also the arsonists behind the Santiago Fire?

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