Man arrested on arson charges for allegedly igniting 34,000-acre wildfire in California

A man was arrested on arson charges Tuesday for allegedly igniting a wildfire in California, according to a police report from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department (SBSD).

Justin Wayne Halstenberg was taken into custody and is being held on $80,000 bail after a team of local detectives and state fire marshals identified him as the suspect who started a fire in the city of Highland, California, that ultimately turned into a massive blaze known as the Line Fire, the SBSD report stated. The 34,000-acre wildfire began on Sep. 5 and has since spread rapidly through the mountains of San Bernardino due to a combination of warm weather and strong winds, with the blaze only 14% contained as of Tuesday night, according to The New York Times.

“Highland Station detectives, in collaboration with Cal Fire investigators, identified Justin Wayne Halstenberg as the suspect who started a fire in the area of Baseline Road and Alpin Street in the city of Highland, also known as the Line Fire, on September 5, 2024,”

𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙪𝙜𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙇𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩: Justin Wayne Halstenberg pic.twitter.com/mBpQT5xHl1

— Inland Empire Community News (@iecnweekly) September 11, 2024

Roughly 18,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, with law enforcement forced to patrol deserted neighborhoods to prevent looting, according to Reuters.

The Line Fire is one of three major wildfires currently taking place in the Golden State, with a brush fire, referred to as the Airport Fire, enveloping 23,000 acres of land in Orange County and another blaze consuming 48,000 acres of land in the San Gabriel Mountains closer to Los Angeles, Reuters reported.

“There was no more exit, you had to drive through the flames to get out,” Ryan LaMothe, whose home was destroyed by the Airport Fire, told local television news station KTLA5.

No details regarding Halstenberg’s motive or the method he allegedly used to start the fire were provided in SBSD’s report.

The SBSD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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