The Scorched-Earth Obsession

They call them the "devil winds." Dave Hillman woke up at 2 a.m. last Monday feeling sick. The weather reports forecast high winds, and Hillman, chief arson investigator for California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, knew devil winds had a way of stimulating arsonists. Whenever a "wind event" occurs, he knows, after 37 years as a firefighter (24 of them studying arson), that "there are always going to be nuts coming out of the woodwork."

Downed power lines, flying embers that can travel a mile in a strong wind, tossed cigarettes, sloppy workers with blowtorches—the causes of the fires that raged from north of Los Angeles to south of San Diego last week may have been varied and accidental. Southern California was dry, and the Santa Anas, the winds that blow off the desert, can whip up a careless campfire into a conflagration. But one big fire, a blaze that burned 27,600 acres and consumed 14 houses, was apparently set deliberately. And five people were caught allegedly trying to start fires that could have added to an inferno that was already hellish—destroying an area twice the size of New York City, burning down about 1,900 houses, injuring some 80 people and killing at least seven.

Why would anyone start, or fan, fires that could scorch thousands of acres, burn down whole communities and kill people? Actually, it happens all the time. Last year more than 30,000 intentionally set structure fires killed 305 people and cost three quarters of a billion dollars in property loss. Arsonists start fires for money—typically, to collect insurance—and for revenge. "Firebugs" are sometimes politically motivated—abortion clinics are favorite targets (174 arson attacks in the United States and Canada since 1977, according to the National Abortion Federation). Kids start fires for kicks or because they are angry (about half of all fires are started by juveniles). Some arsonists want to be heroes, starting fires in order to rush in and save the day. And then there are the creepy pyromaniacs, the ones who start fires for sexual release.

Authorities are convinced that the Santiago blaze, which began north of Mission Viejo in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, was intentionally set. It was ignited by two blazes erupting almost simultaneously a half mile apart, and investigators have apparently found other incriminating evidence, though they weren't saying what last week. Likewise, there are few details about the five people arrested for allegedly setting fires (fortunately, the blazes set by these "tweakers" were small and contained). Some authorities accused the press of hyping the arson reports. But Hillman was not the only state official to be jumpy about firebugs. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a $50,000 reward—later upped to $285,000—to whoever turns in the perpetrator(s) of the Santiago fire. "We will hunt down whoever is responsible," Schwarzenegger said. "If I were one of the people who started this fire, I would not be sleeping very soundly." The governor was in "Terminator" mode because the history of arson in California and elsewhere in the country is so ghastly and unnerving—and so sure to be repeated. A study of infamous arsonists of the past two decades suggests that motivations range from the merely sad to the truly sick and sinister.

A year ago a blaze whipped up by the Santa Ana devil winds destroyed 40,000 acres across the San Jacinto Mountains west of Palm Springs. Five firefighters were killed. Police arrested Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, and charged him with murder. Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco says he will seek the death penalty. "I believe he set fires because of an irresistible impulse," Pacheco tells NEWSWEEK. "It's about power and a morbid, evil fascination. Some people feel powerful by building or achieving things, others by destroying things." Pacheco says there is testimony that Oyler told a relative "he was 'going to burn the mountain'."