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Man to Be Charged With Murder in Californian Wildfire
A California man will be charged with murder in connection with a wildfire that killed two pilots battling the blaze, officials said Tuesday.
Franklin Brady, 50, of Redwood Valley, Calif., U.S., and another suspect may have been running a drug lab in the area of the fire amid oak-covered hills about 100 miles north of San Francisco, investigators say.
Brady was being held in the Mendocino County Jail without bail and could be charged as early as Wednesday, District Attorney Norman Vroman said.
The charges may include two counts of second-degree murder, arson and unauthorized burning. The murder charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Another man, Richard Mortensen, 43, may also be charged in connection with the fire. He was arrested on outstanding warrants for drug and weapons charges.
Evidence of a methamphetamine production lab was discovered near the site where the fire began Monday, Vroman said. He would not say whether Mortensen will be charged with murder.
Pilots Larry Groff, 55, and Lars Stratte, 45, were dropping fire retardant from their Korean War-era Grumman S-2 planes when they hit each other Monday. One plane broke apart and fell to the ground near the site of the collision; the other flew about a quarter mile before crashing, witnesses said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
The fire has destroyed at least 12 buildings and scorched 250 acres, Terrill said. Firefighters believe they can contain the blaze by Wednesday.
In other wildfires, authorities were probing whether an arsonist started an 1,800-acre blaze in Southern California that destroyed at least one house in the hills north of Los Angeles and burned within a few feet of several luxury homes. In Montana, Glacier National Park officials closed four campgrounds and banned trips into parts of the backcountry Tuesday as firefighters battled a 14,000-acre blaze west of the park. Residents were forced from a dozen homes as the lightning-sparked fire exploded Monday from 4,700 acres and shrouded the park in a smoky haze.
Fires also burned across parts of several other states in the West, including Idaho, Nevada, Washington and Wyoming.
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