Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (Con Fire) today announced its fire investigators made arrests in the last 48 hours in two separate intentionally set fires in Antioch and Bay Point.
On March 22, Con Fire investigators arrested Emanuel Serrano, 25, a transient, in the vicinity of two vegetation fires burning along Highway Four near Evora and Willow Pass Roads in Bay Point. The two separate fires originated along the walking trail next to westbound Highway 4.
As crews were arriving, a witness pointed out a subject who they had observed starting the fires.
Investigators checked the area and observed Serrano running through a nearby field. Searching the area on foot and from above with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), investigators located the suspect hiding in tall vegetation on a nearby hill where he was taken into custody.
Witnesses positively identified Serrano as the individual seen starting the fires. Investigators conducted an “origin and cause” investigation, which did not reveal ignition sources other than human activity in the area of the fires.
Serrano was transported to and booked into the Martinez Detention Facility, charged with two counts of Arson of a Structure or Forest Land.
On March 21, a Con Fire investigator responded to an exterior fire burning in brush along the soundwall near Larkspur Drive and Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch. Nearby, Jason Mcgee, 27, a transient living in Antioch, who had been seen in the area of the fire, was identified as a suspect.
During questioning, McGee admitted to lighting this fire and a witness in the area further identified the suspect as having been seen lighting another fire the previous Friday. McGee was subsequently arrested for both fires and transported to the Martinez Detention Facility for booking on two charges of Arson of a Structure or Forest Land.
Con Fire’s Fire Investigation Unit asks residents to help them fight the crime of arson by calling the Arson Tip Line at 1-866-50-ARSON.
Great news, the arsonists have been apprehended.
Both transients.
Perhaps we should give them more money.
Or, better yet, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.
The perp should pay a fine to the BAAQMD for excessive carbon emissions.
Don’t you care about the environment?
He’s a transient? That word denotes being in a place for a short period, followed by movement to another. I’m guessing he’s been residing illegally in the Bay Area for a while, and the words the author was looking for (and perhaps barred from using) were homeless illegal alien. Brings to mind that other “transient” that shot Kate Steinle in SF a few years ago and got away with murder. “Oh, I found the gun and fired accidentally!” he claimed.
What crap!
Homeless, maybe. You don’t KNOW he’s illegal. Sheesh! Some people.
“Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used to locate the suspect.”
The ACLU will get him set free saying his privacy was violated.
What’s the difference between a transient and an unhoused person? Maybe we start using the term ‘transient encampment’.
My 16 year old refers to the unhoused as “Urban Campers”
We all know what the solution is: Bus tickets to Portland where their talents will be better appreciated.
Perhaps a citizen-funded campaign could finance these urgent transportation needs. I’d contribute……..
send me a link, I’ll donate!
Burn them at the stake!
Make them pick up a hot cast iron pan with their bare hands..
..no surprise I mentioned in the other thread it would be transients… it’s going to be a long hot summer. 🙄
Oh, yeah. Let’s keep letting the feral homeless camp out wherever they want. Keep giving them more drug money and encouraging them to come here. We want more of this to happen, right? Because if we keep doing what we are doing, this will happen more and more. These homeless are a blight and we all keep paying for it.
PG&E should hire them.
Has the DA a released them yet? Just like she feels about looters. After all they needed the fire like the looters need the stuff…
25 and 27 hmm. Do you have a job? What are your plans?
Who is interviewing these people?
Does CORE (county outreach) know them?
I bet there’s some people out there that wish they could blame PG&E for this instead of the darling homeless.
Let Becton and her crew take them home so they can burn down her home and personal belongings. She how that works for them.
Oh, please! Just Call DeSaulnier. He’ll get a Federal Grant to create a Commission to study: The Dynamics Of Pyromania in Encampments Research.
We can call it The D.O.P.E.R. report. 🙂
They will be released to start another fire. Like last year fellow arsonists will burn down the state. Every time the weather report reports High Winds they are out there with there lighters. Then it will take weeks to get the fire out and like last year it will go through a town and burn it to the ground. We don’t even have the equipment to put out a fire. They let it burn until it runs out of fuel.
Since this is fire related…does the fire dept investigate? How are fire criminals tracked? Also who’s budget does this involve?
If they are going to set fires every time they are evicted and there is no response for campfires in inappropriate areas…it is going to be a hell of a summer.