Police question three people after suspicious fire starts in San Bernardino
San Bernardino firefighters were able to keep a brush fire Sunday from growing beyond two acres, but authorities appeared to be treating the fire as suspicious.
Police questioned three people in connection with the fire at Sterling Avenue and Foothill Drive, and authorities were also looking for a white Ford Explorer seen leaving the area.
The fire was reported at 1:13 p.m., and firefighters and airtankers had it contained by 2 p.m., U.S. Forest Service dispatchers said.
The fire was on the city's northern border and burned into the San Bernardino National Forest, said Forest Service Battalion Chief Dan Snow.
"We've had several fires there in the last ten years," he said, counting the 2003 Old Fire that burned 91,000 acres, killed seven people and destroyed about 1,000 structures.
No one has been charged in connection with starting the Old Fire, which was believed to have been started by an arsonist.
Police questioned three people in connection with the fire at Sterling Avenue and Foothill Drive, and authorities were also looking for a white Ford Explorer seen leaving the area.
The fire was reported at 1:13 p.m., and firefighters and airtankers had it contained by 2 p.m., U.S. Forest Service dispatchers said.
The fire was on the city's northern border and burned into the San Bernardino National Forest, said Forest Service Battalion Chief Dan Snow.
"We've had several fires there in the last ten years," he said, counting the 2003 Old Fire that burned 91,000 acres, killed seven people and destroyed about 1,000 structures.
No one has been charged in connection with starting the Old Fire, which was believed to have been started by an arsonist.
Snow said Forest Service officers went to Sunday's fire.
San Bernardino police temporarily detained three people for questioning Sunday who were "in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Lt. Brian Koerner.
The three people, who were walking in the area of the fire, were not arrested.
The white Ford Explorer was also seen leaving the scene of the fire quickly, said San Bernardino Fire Department spokesman and firefighter Steve Tracy.
"There's no homes up there, so there's no reason why anybody should be driving up there," Tracy said.
He said city and federal arson investigators were investigating together.
In what appears to be a separate incident, at 2:15 p.m., California Highway Patrol officers arrested a man driving south on Highway 18, after an off-duty fire captain apparently saw the 23-year-old man doing something that could have caused a fire, said CHP Officer Gary Fernandez. The man was driving a brown GMC pickup truck, but officers had not yet identified him.
Arson fires continue to be problematic. The Esperanza Fire in October 2006 killed five firefighters. Raymond Lee Oyler is awaiting trial in Riverside County on murder charges related to their deaths.
jason.pesick@inlandnewspapers.com
San Bernardino police temporarily detained three people for questioning Sunday who were "in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Lt. Brian Koerner.
The three people, who were walking in the area of the fire, were not arrested.
The white Ford Explorer was also seen leaving the scene of the fire quickly, said San Bernardino Fire Department spokesman and firefighter Steve Tracy.
"There's no homes up there, so there's no reason why anybody should be driving up there," Tracy said.
He said city and federal arson investigators were investigating together.
In what appears to be a separate incident, at 2:15 p.m., California Highway Patrol officers arrested a man driving south on Highway 18, after an off-duty fire captain apparently saw the 23-year-old man doing something that could have caused a fire, said CHP Officer Gary Fernandez. The man was driving a brown GMC pickup truck, but officers had not yet identified him.
Arson fires continue to be problematic. The Esperanza Fire in October 2006 killed five firefighters. Raymond Lee Oyler is awaiting trial in Riverside County on murder charges related to their deaths.
jason.pesick@inlandnewspapers.com
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