Investigators seeking source of San Diego wildfires

SAN DIEGO — With evacuation orders being lifted Friday, investigators worked to determine whether an unusually early and intense outbreak of wildfires in Southern California this week was ignited by something as ordinary as sparks from cars or something as sinister as an arsonist.

State fire officials said the first of at least 10 blazes that erupted between Tuesday and Thursday was found to have been caused by a spark from malfunctioning construction equipment. But it could take months to get to the bottom of the most damaging fires.

“We are not ruling out anything,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said.

In Oceanside, Alberto Serrato, 57, pleaded not guilty Friday to arson in connection with a 105-acre fire that started Wednesday and is fully contained.

A spokeswoman for the San Diego County district attorney’s office said witnesses saw Serrato adding dead brush onto smoldering bushes, which flamed up.

Oceanside police Lt. Sean Marshand said Serrato is believed to have added fuel to the fire but not to have started it.

“Unfortunately we don’t have the guy that we really want,” he said.

Police in Escondido arrested two people, ages 17 and 19, in connection with two small fires that were extinguished within minutes. But they found no evidence linking them to other fires.

All together, the wildfires have raced through an estimated 20,000 acres about 30 miles north of San Diego, causing more than $20 million in damage. One burned body was found in an encampment of homeless people.

At least eight houses and an 18-unit condominium complex were destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were warned to leave their homes.

Eight of the blazes popped up between late morning and sundown on Wednesday, raising suspicions that some had been set.

The region has become a tinder box because of conditions not normally seen until late summer — extremely dry weather, 50 mph Santa Ana winds and temperatures in the 90s. Cooler weather Friday aided the 2,600 firefighters, and thousands of people began returning home.

In one of the hardest-hit cities, Carlsbad, investigators finished examining the burn site across from a park and focused on interviewing people who called a hotline set up to report suspicious activity.

“Do people have suspicions? Yes,” said police Capt. Neil Gallucci, noting there has been no lightning that could explain the blazes. “But can we confirm them? The answer is no.”

The list of possible causes is long.

“Our investigation might be over quickly for some of these fires — say, if we find a piece of metal nearby from a catalytic converter that backfired,” the sheriff said. “But others might not be so easy to determine. We’ll be talking to people in the areas to see if they saw anything.”

Investigators will visit each burn site and go down a list, marking what they know and don’t know.

Is it near a road? That raises the possibility that the flames were ignited by a hot tailpipe, sparks from a catalytic converter or a discarded cigarette from a motorist. Is there a railroad nearby? Are there any power lines?

Two of the blazes broke out at military bases, where training exercises with gunfire have been known to spark fires.

The hardest-hit areas were in San Marcos, where a college campus shut down and canceled graduation ceremonies, and Carlsbad, where the Legoland amusement park was forced to close.