My Fire: Started by a Boy Playing with Matches

[livecam]

Officials: Boy with matches started fire By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer
32 minutes ago
 

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.
 
The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.

"He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," Hecht said in a statement.

The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be presented to the district attorney's office, Hecht said. It was not clear if he had been arrested or cited by detectives.

The fire began in an area near Agua Dulce and quickly spread. It was among 15 or so major wildfires that destroyed some 2,100 homes and blackened 809 square miles from Los Angeles to the Mexican border last week. Seven deaths were blamed directly on the fires, six evacuees died of natural causes and one person died of a fall.

Authorities arrested five people for arson during that period, but none have been linked to any of the major blazes.

All but four of the blazes are now fully contained. Firefighters on Wednesday continued to cut lines around the remaining fires and kept a close eye on the weather.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Deputy Maribel Rizo said prosecutors were yet to determine if the boy's parents would be held accountable for any financial losses caused by the fire. Rizo did not know when prosecutors would be given the case.

Forecasters have said moderate Santa Ana winds could pick up later in the week.

Investigators have blamed an arsonist for setting a destructive wildfire in Orange County that blackened 28,500 acres and destroyed 16 homes.

Authorities were seeking the driver of a white Ford F-150 pickup truck spotted in a canyon area around the time the fire broke out. They said they wanted to talk to the driver, but stopped short of calling the person a suspect.

Officials offered a $285,000 reward to anyone with information that will lead to an arrest and conviction.

[KT0930]

I'm just bewildered by this. As a parent I don't know what I would do if this were my child. LC, I can't imagine how you must feel, having seen this fire firsthand and the destruction it caused. Again, thank goodness you and your loved ones are safe!

[livecam]

I'm just bewildered by this. As a parent I don't know what I would do if this were my child. LC, I can't imagine how you must feel, having seen this fire firsthand and the destruction it caused. Again, thank goodness you and your loved ones are safe!

Surprised I guess.  Arson is a horrible thing but in this case we can't even come close to using that word.  I wonder how it is that the boy had access to matches?  This is a wakeup call to parents if anyone to keep matches and similiar materials secure.

[KR Cincy]

Beyond any criminal or civil charges, that boy is going to be messed up for life, knowing the damage he caused. That's a lot of baggage to carry around your entire life starting at such a young age. And any charges that do get filed should include his parents...they are responsible for his actions and they blew it.

[angela515]

I can't really comment until i know his age.... either way... it sucks this happened.

[Sluff]

Kids will be kids, I agree the parents may need to accept responsibility.

[goofynina]

Oh man, how do you even punish a kid (legally) for doing this?  I agree, this is going to be with him the rest of his life, 

[skyedogrocks]

I agree, how do you even punish a kid for this?  Also, I know parents should be held responsible, but this is just so much to be responsible for. 

I remember years ago my 2 older brothers were caught playing with matches when they were 10 & 12.  Thankfully nothing happened, but they were just curious.  They took them from our mother who was a smoker back then.  They weren't bad kids, they were just curious.  I thought my parents were going to kill them!  They got a heavy punishment.  However, they grew up to have great jobs and families, very well respected by their communities.  But in a blink of an eye the same thing could have happened to them as it did to this boy.

[livecam]

We may never know the identity of the child.  It is being kept secret now and may continue to be.  Punishing a young child in an appropriate manner considering what happened might not be possible.  We've all played with matches as children and usually it was harmless.  Where you live in the country has much to do with the possibility that this might get out of hand.  Here in southern California we are essentially living in a desert.  Much of the year the brush that covers most nonlandscaped areas is tinder dry and ripe for a fire.  What made this situation different was what are called Santa Ana winds which are warm, high velocity winds usually seen only several times each year.  If anything gets started these winds tend to help kindle it and spread it very rapidly.  This particular fire was called the Buckweed fire.  It started about 15 miles from where we live yet was within the neighborhood several hours after it began.  It could just as easily have been started by a carelessly discarded cigarette or anything that might create a few sparks.  Until or if we know more we'll have to reserve judgement on the child and the particulars surrounding the start of the fire.

[st789]

Well, at least the kid admits his horrible mistake.  How is ur. place Livecam?  When I saw the fire spreads to Santa Clarita, I was like oh, oo.

[livecam]

Well, at least the kid admits his horrible mistake.  How is ur. place Livecam?  When I saw the fire spreads to Santa Clarita, I was like oh, oo.

The nearest fire to us was on our property on a hillside behind our house.  Firefighters used our back yard to gain access to the hill and ran hoses up from the street in front of our house.  We were fine and had no damage at all.  I just finished hosing down the rest of the house yesterday as well as the concrete areas at the rear and side of the house.  There was alot of muck and ash but otherwise all is well.  It was amazing to see how fast the neighborhoods got back to normal.  One minute a ton of fire equipment and the next day business as usual.  Southern California...

[livecam]

Will a Child Be Charged in the Fires? By MICHAEL LINDENBERGER


The 10-year-old boy who accidentally started one of the worst California wildfires last month could face stern consequences, should prosecutors decide to bring charges. Though too young to be charged as an adult, the boy could still face millions of dollars in fines, removal from his home and possible detention as a ward of the state. For now the boy's fate - and that of his parents, who would be partially liable for any restitution payments he would have to pay - rests with Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. His office told TIME he has not yet decided how to proceed. "The matter is under review," spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told TIME on Monday. "No decision has been made."
 
To bring those charges, all Cooley must decide is whether the boy knew right from wrong - an easy standard to meet, other prosecutors in the state say. "That is a lot easier to establish than you would think," said Cyndi Jo Means, a deputy district attorney in nearby San Diego County who leads that county's juvenile division arson team. "Think of your own children, even very small children; most of the time they know when they did something wrong."

Despite the low hurdle to prosecution, Means contends the California juvenile justice system seeks to help young suspects, who can benefit from counseling and close supervision from the court and case workers. Children under 14 are nearly always charged as juveniles, not adults - no matter what the crime. "We try to help the child, and prosecuting them as adults would not be very helpful," Means said. Any finding of guilt, she added, would not follow the boy into adulthood.

Southern Californians are still sorting through the wreckage from the fires, which burned more than 800 square miles - an area 40 times as large as Manhattan - and destroyed some 2,100 homes. The 10-year-old's carelessness sparked the Buckweed fire in Los Angeles County, which destroyed 21 homes and injured at least three people. Those losses have left some residents in a less than forgiving mood. "If you accidentally set a massive fire that destroys homes, cause residents to flee for their lives and requires millions of dollars in resources to extinguish, then you damn well need to pay the piper," wrote Dave Bossert on his online newspaper, The West Ranch Beacon.

Peter Arenella, a professor at the UCLA Law School said any prosecution of a 10-year-old that aims to punish the boy, rather than help him, "is an absurdity. The only justification for that would be if, in some extreme case, there was a need to protect society from him." Barring that, he said, prosecutors should be reluctant to sweep the boy up into the legal system.

It's hard to see how stern consequences - taking the boy from his parents, for instance, and handing down a multi-million fine - would be helpful to the 10-year-old. Much of the decision of whether to prosecute him rests with Cooley, who like prosecutors everywhere has a great deal of discretion. Unless uglier details about the boy's behavior are discovered, he could decide that in this case playing with matches doesn't rise the level of arson - even if the boy admits he knew that doing so was wrong. As Means points out, children almost always admit they knew their actions were wrong when they are questioned by police or prosecutors, which can be a scary experience for a kid.

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty for inmates who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, it argued that teenagers' brains are not fully formed until they are grown, and that punishing them as adults was therefore cruel and unusual. No one is saying a 10-year-old boy ought to be executed for setting a fire, but even the lesser punishment the boy is facing could be nearly as cruel. That has led some to argue that the bar for prosecution ought to be higher than simply proving that he knew right from wrong. Boys know lots of things are wrong - from ignoring bedtimes to eating too many cookies. A better standard, some argue, would be determining whether the boy, at 10, had any way of knowing the consequences of what he was doing with those matches. With reporting by Jill Underwood/San Diego


 

[angela515]

I read that on yahoo news.

I don't think he should go to jail or taken from his family... he's 10. I'm sorry, he did a horrible thing yes, but he's 10. Should a punishment be given? Of course... should the parents have some punishment too? Of course... but not what I am hearing.