Arson arrest made in California’s Park Fire. Man pushed mom’s flaming car into gully, DA says
A man has been arrested by Cal Fire arson personnel suspected of sparking the Park Fire, California’s largest wildfire of the year, authorities announced Thursday.
In a media release, Mike Ramsey, the county’s district attorney, said a 42-year-old Chico man was seen Wednesday just before 3 p.m. pushing a car that was on fire into a ditch near Alligator Hole in Upper Bidwell Park. The car reportedly rolled approximately 60 feet down an embankment, where it “burned completely” and spread into the Park Fire, which Cal Fire reported at 120,000 acres (188 square miles) by Thursday evening.
The office said the man, identified Thursday afternoon as Ronnie Stout, was then seen leaving the area by blending in with others nearby who were fleeing the blaze.
Investigators with Cal Fire’s arson unit secured the scene to search for clues to uncover the man’s identity, and he was “eventually identified,” Ramsey said in a news release.
A judge issued a no-bail warrant for Stout early Thursday morning, and he was arrested at about 2 a.m. Thursday at his residence in a Chico mobile home park, Ramsey said in a video news conference streamed live on Cal Fire’s Facebook page.
Ramsey said Cal Fire arson investigators and District Attorney’s Office investigators arrested him after they “demanded by loudspeakers” that Stout exit the home with his hands up.
He was booked into the Butte County Jail, where he will stay until he is arraigned in court on Monday on a count of arson, Ramsey said.
A witness in the area saw Stout acting “somewhat strange,” according to Ramsey. The witness reportedly saw a fire start underneath Stout’s car, in response to which he “(did) nothing other than watching the fire.”
Ramsey said the witness saw Stout enter the car, do something inside, exit the car and finally push it into the gully.
A woman named Elizabeth Fox uploaded a video to TikTok on Wednesday saying she saw the man “blow up his car and then put it in neutral and roll it down the hill, and take off like nothing happened.” In the video, Fox said she took a photo of the man, later identified as Stout, leaving the scene and gave a statement to investigators. The district attorney identified the vehicle involved as Stout’s mother’s vehicle.
According to Ramsey, Stout has multiple prior convictions on his record — one in Butte County of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 from 2001, and another in Kern County of robbery with great bodily injury in 2003. He is a registered sex offender, according to California’s Megan’s Law database. Stout was also arrested for a DUI in 2020.
As of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the video had more than 708,000 views and nearly 80,000 likes.
The District Attorney’s Office encourages anyone who has information or was in the Alligator Hole area between noon and 3 p.m. on Wednesday is to call Cal Fire investigations at 530-538-7888.
This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 11:18 AM with the headline "Arson arrest made in California’s Park Fire. Man pushed mom’s flaming car into gully, DA says."