Convicted arsonist arraigned on charges of starting two more Northern California wildfires

A convicted arsonist who in 2004 was sentenced to 17 years in prison for starting wildland fires pleaded not guilty this week to charges of igniting two more, said officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Donald Shawn Anderson, 41, entered his not guilty plea during his arraignment Tuesday in a Lake County courtroom on four felony counts of arson, accused of starting two fires near Clear Lake in Northern California — one in September and another in October. Both fires were put out quickly, although one, in a rural canyon south of Clear Lake, required fire officials to dispatch an air and ground response.

Anderson is familiar to arson investigators in Lake County. In 2004, he was sentenced to prison for starting more than a dozen fires. He was charged with 16 counts of arson, along with two counts of being in possession of an incendiary device, according to Lake County court records. He pleaded guilty to five counts of arson and one count of having a fire starter.

Anderson and his representatives could not be reached for comment.

From summer into fall this year, firefighters have been battling brutal wildfires up and down the state, many of them attributed to arson.

The Park fire, which grew to be the fourth-largest in California history, ignited on July 24 in Bidwell Park in Chico. Fire officials said the cause was arson and arrested Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico, accusing him of pushing a burning car into a gully. The blaze burned out of control for weeks, eventually consuming half a million acres and more than 700 structures.

In nearby Oroville, the Thompson fire, which burned 4,000 acres in Butte County after it erupted July 2, also was attributed to arson. In August, authorities arrested Spencer Grant Anderson, who, according to Cal Fire, admitted to investigators he had thrown a firework out of his car’s window.

The Line fire, which ignited in San Bernardino County in early September, also was caused by arson, officials said. Justin Wayne Halstenberg was charged with 11 counts of arson, including using incendiary devices to start fires, aggravated arson and causing great bodily injury. Halstenberg has pleaded not guilty, and his mother told The Times that her son was innocent. That fire, which injured three firefighters, has burned nearly 50,000 acres and is 89% contained, according to Cal Fire.

Just days after Halstenberg’s arraignment, officials arrested a Cal Fire engineer, Robert Hernandez, 38, on suspicion of starting fires on forested land in the areas surrounding Geyserville, Healdsburg and Windsor in Sonoma County.

Gianni Muschetto, Cal Fire’s chief of law enforcement, said the agency has arrested 109 people so far this year on suspicion of arson. The number for all of 2023 was 111, he said.

Some of those people, he said, are accused of starting a fire to cover up another crime — a burglary, for example. Or to collect insurance payments on a home or car. But for many of the people who start fires in forests or grasslands, Muschetto said, the motive appears to be “driven by some excitement they get out of it.”

“Regardless of their intent,” he said, “they have no control of it once they light the fire.” And sometimes, as in the case of this year’s Park fire, the results can be disastrous in terms of natural resources destroyed, homes burned and communities facing years of recovery.

When officials suspect there’s a serial arsonist at work, Muschetto said, plainclothes investigators may surveil a suspect. Sometimes, investigators will catch someone in the act of starting a fire. More often, they gather evidence showing the suspect was in the area of numerous fire starts.

Cal Fire officials did not say why investigators zeroed in on Anderson as the alleged culprit for the Lake County fires.

The first fire ignited Sept. 22 in Seigler Canyon west of Lower Lake. Firefighters were able to contain it at one acre, but only with “a pretty big response” from air and ground, said Cal Fire spokesperson Jason Clay.

The second fire started Oct. 2 near New Long Valley Road. It was extinguished at just one one-hundredth of an acre.

A news release about Anderson’s arrest posted on Facebook by Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit set off a chorus of responses.

“Arsonists,” wrote one person. “Too many fires here lately. Life in prison is the only answer.”

Another person proclaimed Anderson’s innocence, saying he was being blamed because of the past conviction. “How about not judging until proven guilty,” she wrote.

But many, fed up with a rash of fires big and small in their dry golden hills, said arsonists should get no mercy.

“How can anyone be so cruel to set fires that [burn] people out of their homes,” one person asked.

“These arsonists are costing us a bloody fortune,” fumed another.