Man convicted of starting fires
A homeless man was convicted Friday in federal court of starting a 2006 wildfire that burned more than 163,000 acres in California’s Los Padres National Forest.
The jury also convicted Steven Emory Butcher, 49, of starting the smaller Ellis fire in the same forest four years earlier.
Butcher was found guilty of two felony counts of starting fires and of one count each of allowing a fire to escape his control, violating restrictions by building a fire on federal forest land and smoking in a federal forest, all misdemeanors.
Both the fires burned in Piru Canyon, in a remote wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest. The Day fire raged for more than a month and cost more than $78 million to suppress. It injured 18 people and destroyed 11 structures.
The Ellis fire burned 70 acres.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Butcher had an illegal campsite in the canyon, where he lived for part of the year.
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