There's a lot of humidity in the air now. It tends to sort of bleed over into November a little bit, but really the temperatures have dropped significantly. It's a chance for the communities who were affected by this fire to come out, to ask questions, maybe to grieve a little bit, maybe to vent a little anger over what happened, and a chance to say thank you to those who helped put this fire out.ĬHADWICK: Is this the end of the fire season out there? Aren't the rains about to start, I think?ĬUEVAS: Yeah, it is pretty much the end of the fire season. This crew, this five-man crew was in place to protect mountain homes in the San Jacinto Mountains when they were just overrun by these flames.ĬHADWICK: What is happening there in the community this week, Steven?ĬUEVAS: Well, this week - first off, tonight, way up in this mountainous community, they will have a public community meeting that will include members of the Forest Service, the different agencies who were involved in fighting the fire, law enforcement. They're now starting to sift through radio transmissions, interviewing the four other crews who were also in that area and were among the first to respond to this fire.Īnd really that's all we know right now, is that it was early on in the fire. They're doing forensic work on the ground. Forest Service is conducting their own investigation as to the circumstances under which this crew was trapped and under which they perished. The California Department of Forestry and the U.S. I mean this is the other investigation that's going on. Are the officials there saying any more about what happened?ĬUEVAS: Well, not much. Some are speculating that perhaps authorities might have some evidence that somehow link him to this recent wildfire and want to keep him in custody, and this may be a way to do that.ĬHADWICK: Five Forest Service firefighters did die in this one fire last week that's a lot of people in one fire event. He's not been arrested in connection with this recent fire.īut, as you said, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department say he is a person of interest, which means he is being questioned about the case. Investigators apparently found fire-making, what they're calling fire-making materials at his house in the town of Beaumont. He was arrested in connection with two other arson wildfires in the same area as this past week's fire. STEVEN CUEVAS: Well, he is 36-year-old Raymond Lee Oyler. Steven, they're stopping short of calling this person who's under arrest a suspect. Here with us is reporter Steve Cuevas of member station KPCC. The fire at least has been fully contained and the sheriff's department now has what it calls a person of interest in custody. And they decided to let Pablo go.ĬHADWICK: Pablo Cerda was 23 years old. DEV GNANADEV (Director, Arrowhead Medical Center): In the end, we did talk to the family and gave them an option, for us to go take him to the operating room again for further surgeries, knowing that his prognosis is very, very poor. Here's his doctor last night speaking to reporters at the Arrowhead Medical Center in Colton, California, Dr. A fifth firefighter died last night from burns suffered last week in the massive wildfire in California's San Jacinto Mountains.
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