PHOTO/JOHN DIEHM
The Lake Shastina home on Stag Mountain is completely involved in flames as firefighters arrive. An adjacent home, also set on fire by an arsonist, was saved.
LAKE SHASTINA – A series of early morning arson fires set by former Lake Shastina resident Clete White on Feb. 20, burned one home to the ground, damaged two other homes, and left extensive fire and smoke damage to the Lake Shastina Administration Building making it unusable.
The series of events began at 5:30 a.m. for the Lake Shastina Fire Department, law enforcement, and neighboring fire departments. That is when the first dispatch was given summoning the emergency response to a structure fire located on top of Stag Mountain in Lake Shastina.
Although dispatch did not have a good address or location for the emergency, responders had no trouble finding the fully involved structure fire on top of the hill that lit the night sky with flames leaping up to 300 feet in the air. They also had plenty of light to do their jobs between the light of the fire and the full moon reflecting off the lake.
The Lake Shastina engines set up to fight the fire and were soon joined by fire engines from Weed and CalFire. The totally involved two-story home was already a complete loss before firefighters arrived.
About 20 minutes into the suppression effort at 5200 Stag Street firefighters noticed smoke coming from the next door house at 5208 Stag Street. Firefighters made immediate entry into the unoccupied house and quickly extinguished fires set in two of the room in the house.
White had entered the house by breaking a window from the deck that was out of sight of the firefighting effort from the first fire. Because resources were in place for a quick response, that structure sustained minimal fire damage.
That was not the case, however, for the Lake Shastina Administration Building located at 16320 Everhart Dr. Fire inside that building was noticed at 6:15 a.m. by fire crews from other districts who were staging at the adjacent Lake Shastina Fire Department.
White had made his way to the administration building, possibly by using a golf cart stolen from the golf course, and made entry by breaking a window on the west side of the building. He then went through all the offices where he opened file cabinets and using combustible liquids set them on fire.
Although staging firefighters noticed fire inside the building and immediately responded with an interior attack, the abundant fuel source caused the quickly spreading fire to extend into the attic of the building. It took nearly two hours for fire crews to complete extinguish the fire smoldering in the attic leaving numerous vent holes in the roof and ceiling pulled down inside to get to the fire.
Damage to the administration building would have been much more severe if the mutual aid engines had not been staging at the Lake Shastina Fire Station across the street, noted Lake Shastina Firefighter Josh Paulus. Their presence also prevented the arsonist from setting the police-fire station on fire.
Before the day was over, fire engines from many of Siskiyou County’s Fire Department had helped with the emergency. Besides CalFire engines, volunteer fire departments came from Weed, Mount Shasta, Hammond Ranch, Mayten, Shasta Vista, Grenada, and South Yreka.
White was caught and arrested at 6:30 a.m. He had traveled to the Lake Shastina Country Club where he threw a rock through the window and made entry into the building. He was arrested before any fires were set at the Country Club.
After his early rampage was over, one other house at 5103 Stag Mountain Rd. was discovered as an arson attempt. White had also broken into this house but the fire he set went out.
Former Lake Shastina resident Clete James White, 56, was booked into the Siskiyou County Jail on four counts of arson, Penal Code 451(b), and four counts of burglary, Penal Code 459 PC.
He was a former occupant of the 5200 Stag St. home now entirely owned by his ex-wife Patti Hartel. She was not home at the time because she was staying at her parent’s Lake Shastina home.
The Community Services District held its regularly scheduled monthly meeting that night in the banquet room at the Lake Shastina Golf Club Restaurant. At that meeting Lea reported that portable buildings have been ordered to be set up in the administration building parking lot. These offices will be open to the public on Monday, Feb. 25.
By JOHN DIEHM
Shastina News Writer/Editor
1 comment:
Hello, a minor correction/addition - the events began prior to 5:30. I called 911 at 5:10 and they had already received a call reporting the fire; from my vantage point the initial engine arrived at 5:27. The sound of the first house burning was haunting with the wood popping and window glass breaking from the heat produced by the fire.... A moment of realization that much can be lost so quickly.
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