The largest California wildfire of 2022, the Park Fire, has been allegedly ignited by a former prisoner, who is now in custody. According to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, Ronnie Dean Stout II, from Chico, California was arrested on Thursday morning at his home.
On Wednesday evening, Stout allegedly set off a large fire by driving a flaming car into a ravine at Bidwell Park near Chico. The automobile reportedly belonged to his mother and it plunged down 60 feet before turning to ash. The surrounding vegetation also went up in flames. Consequently, many people were evacuated from their homes. The fire was only 3% contained as of Friday morning and caused evacuations for approximately four thousand residents of Butte County. And four hundred of those living close to Chico according to the New York Post.
In CBS news it is said that before the disastrous Park Fire started in Bidwell Park one group of young girls who opted to remain anonymous but were willing to talk with media reported meeting with Ronnie Dean Stout II.
They saw Stout putting a burning car into a ravine thus igniting it. He then walked away quietly, pretending to be like other escaping crowds.
These women say they felt uncomfortable after meeting him. They were at an area where people can swim near Bidwell Park when they saw someone aged around forty approaching them. “He couldn’t even speak properly,” they added and mentioned that he behaved weirdly as if he was drunk. Eventually bystander interfered and man left them alone.
Later these females did not connect what happened with their earlier encounter until they recognized him in this photo. Posted on social media platforms after which they made call at police station providing their witness statements regarding what they had seen during evening hours of August 24th that lasted for almost three hours through fumes before reaching back home safely says agin Times-Standard.
As gusty winds, dry fuels, and low humidity made the fire spread faster than firefighters could handle it. “The fire quickly began to outpace our resources because of the dry fuels, the hot weather, the low humidities and the wind,” said Butte County Fire Chief Garrett Sjolund.
Stout was seen blending into a stream of frightened park visitors as they escaped from the scene. He is now accused of arson and has two prior felony convictions that qualified as “strikes.” Under California’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law, he could face life imprisonment if convicted of this latest charge.
Mike Ramsay said there were still discussions about possibly imposing enhancements for great bodily injury or death. Stout’s prior record includes 20 years on robbery and a DUI in 2020 among other things adds usatoday.com.
Minor injuries have already occurred as well as an unknown number of structure loss due to Park Fire. Investigations are ongoing while authorities contain the blaze and assess its impact fully.
