A 26-year-old man has been arrested and charged with arson in the Thompson Fire, which burned 3,789 acres in the Northern California town of Oroville in early July.
Oroville resident Spencer Grant Anderson was arrested in Chico on Thursday. He was charged Monday with arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land and arson causing multiple structures to burn, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The charges were filed after an extensive 50-day investigation by a team of Cal Fire investigators brought in from around the state. At one point, four to six investigators had Anderson under 24/7 surveillance while others conducted a forensic investigation at the intersection of Cherokee and Thompson Flat roads, the location where the fire started, Cal Fire said.
Hours into the investigation, the team concluded the fire was likely caused by a flaming object thrown from a Toyota sedan. On July 3, a day after the fire started, they linked the vehicle to Anderson using license plate readers.
After being arrested, Anderson admitted he had purchased fireworks the day the fire started and drove to Cherokee Road to test one by throwing it out the window, Cal Fire said.
The fire started on a “red flag day,” when the risk of a fast-spreading wildfire was extremely high. The temperature was above 100 degrees, humidity was low and winds were blowing from west to east.
The fire spread more than 3.5 miles, destroying 13 homes and damaging 34 structures.
Anderson could face 21 years in prison if convicted on all charges. He is being held without bail in the Butte County Jail and will appear in court again on Wednesday for the setting of dates for his plea and pretrial hearings.
Oroville is located about 20 miles south of Paradise, where the deadliest wildfire in California history, the Camp Fire, killed 85 people in 2018.
Tens of thousands of Butte County residents were placed under mandatory evacuation orders after the Thompson Fire began on July 2, including some who had previously lost their homes in the Camp Fire.
