National Guard deployed to help fight raging California fire
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(NEW YORK) — Firefighting teams battling the southern California Line Fire achieved 5% containment of the blaze Monday night, with 23,714 acres burned.
Cal Fire’s latest update on the wildfire in San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles said 38,002 structures were threatened, though it noted there was so far no damage to buildings or any additional casualties beyond the three firefighters injured previously.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the California National Guard will support the ongoing response to the Line Fire, the cause of which is still unknown.
“We’re pouring resources into this incident aggressively by deploying more air and ground support through the California National Guard,” Newsom said in a statement. “This is on top of nearly 2,000 firefighters, nearly 200 engines, and air assets we already have tackling this fire. California stands with these communities and has their backs.”
Monday saw most fire activity in the north and east edges of the wildfire, Cal Fire said, adding, “The fire could remain active overnight as vegetation remains critically dry.”
“Stronger winds are predicted Tuesday which could help fire spread and contribute to longer range spotting. Mid-week cooling may moderate fire activity and increase fuel moistures,” Cal Fire said.
The fire — active since Sept. 5 — is burning in steep and rugged terrain, making access difficult, Cal Fire said. Firefighters, its update added, are working to build “control lines” to contain the blaze.
Evacuation orders are in place for 8,800 structures, with another 29,200 structures under evacuation warnings.
Four UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters for water bucket dropping operations and two C-130 aircraft with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems will be among the resources deployed by the National Guard, Newsom said.
There will also be 80 troops split into four 20-person hand crews and one military police company to assist the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department with traffic control in evacuated areas.
(NEW YORK) — In an encore “20/20” airing August 16 at 9 p.m. ET, the show, which originally aired in 2020, revisits the case of Pamela Smart, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for being an accomplice in her husband Gregg’s murder in 1990.
Smart, whose murder trial was the first in U.S. history to be broadcast on television gavel-to-gavel, maintained her innocence for 30 years. But this summer, in a stunning turn of events, she admitted to her role in her husband’s murder for the first time. “20/20” looks at the series of events that led to Gregg Smart’s murder and its aftermath and offers the latest news in what could be Pamela Smart’s last chance at freedom.
After nearly three decades behind bars for plotting to kill her husband at their home, Pamela Smart is still proclaiming her innocence.
“I have been portrayed as [an] ice princess, a black widow, a killer, and none of those things could be further from the truth,” Smart told “20/20” in a new interview.
Smart’s story made national headlines in the 1990s when she went to trial on charges she coerced her teenaged lover Billy Flynn into a plot to kill her 24-year-old husband Gregg Smart.
Pamela Smart’s trial took place before the high-profile trials of the Menendez brothers, John and Lorena Bobbitt and O.J. Simpson.
The trial was broadcast live on TV and it subsequently launched a media frenzy. A local New Hampshire TV station preempted daytime soap operas for trial coverage. The sensational event led to a made-for-TV movie, features in various true crime TV series in the U.S. and abroad, as well as the 1995 feature film “To Die For,” starring Nicole Kidman.
Watch the full story on “20/20” Friday, Jan. 10 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
In March 1991, Pamela Smart was convicted of witness tampering, conspiracy to commit murder and being an accomplice to first-degree murder. Under New Hampshire law, the accomplice charge carried a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole. She was 23 years old at the time.
Smart, now age 52, has spent the last 29 years incarcerated and is currently at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County, New York.
“I wanted to be [a] mother and now I’ve lost all my years,” she said. “It seems like the whole world’s passing by and, you know, I’m still here.”
Over the years, Smart has filed numerous appeals and lost each time. With all her appeals exhausted, she said it’s difficult to hope she’ll ever leave prison alive.
Through it all, her mother, Linda Wojas, has continued her crusade to fight for her daughter’s freedom.
“I just hope God lets me live long enough to see her free,” Wojas said in a new interview with “20/20.”
Pamela Smart’s time in prison was difficult from early on. In 1996, she was beaten by two inmates who left her with injuries so severe that she needed a metal plate to be inserted into the side of her face.
Since then, Smart has earned two master’s degrees. She said she participates in a leadership team for the prison’s church and that she’s the director of its “praise dance” group. She said she also works as a liaison between inmates and the prison superintendent.
Wojas, who firmly believes in her daughter’s innocence, said she once asked Smart to apologize for her husband’s murder in hopes that it would help get her out of prison. Pamela Smart has consistently denied for decades she had any involvement in her husband’s murder.
In February 2018, Smart’s legal team submitted a petition for her sentence to be commuted, including testimonials from people she knew in prison.
“I was struck by the letters of support. I was struck by how well Ms. Smart has conducted herself in prison. And then I got to the memo that she personally wrote,” New Hampshire Executive Council member Andru Volinsky told “20/20.”
“In the very first paragraph, she claimed she had no involvement with his death,” Volinsky said. “That is at great odds with the evidence in the case. The failure to recognize her own culpability was what convinced me to vote against the hearing. How do I trust someone who hasn’t even come to terms with her own responsibility for the death of her husband?”
Smart was ultimately denied a sentence reduction hearing.
A life in prison is a world apart from the life Smart imagined for herself as a newlywed making a home in Derry, New Hampshire, in 1990.
“I was only 21 years old when I got married. I was very much in love with my husband,” Smart told “20/20.” “I thought that Gregg and I, that we would have a fulfilling future. That we would have a family and children.”
Pamela Smart, who goes by Pame, worked at a local high school as a media and journalism coordinator while her husband went into the insurance business with his father.
On May 1, 1990, Smart said she came home from work to find her husband dead from a gunshot wound to the head inside their condominium.
“What happened to Gregg is the most horrible thing I’ve ever gone through in my life, and I’m still haunted every day by memories of what must have happened to him inside our house before he was killed,” Smart said in her most recent interview. “Although I wasn’t there, I feel that because of that I’ll never know how Gregg was feeling at the time. I keep thinking of how afraid he must have been and how senseless this whole tragedy was. A lot of the times, I still can’t even believe that he’s gone.”
Police were investigating the case for six weeks before they got their first break. Vance Lattime Sr. went into the Seabrook Police station with his .38 caliber revolver, telling authorities that one of his son’s friends had told him it may have been used to kill Gregg Smart.
Once ballistics results confirmed a match between bullets fired from the gun and the bullet that killed Gregg Smart, police brought in Vance Lattime Jr.’s friend, Ralph Welch, for questioning.
Welch told police he had a conversation with Lattime Jr., and Patrick “Pete” Randall in the Lattime home, who talked about how Gregg Smart was killed.
He said he heard the boys discuss how Lattime Jr., Randall, and two other boys, Raymond Fowler and Billy Flynn were there that night. Welch said Lattime Jr. and Randall said that Lattime Jr. drove the group to the Smarts’ condo, and that Flynn and Randall went inside while Fowler remained in the car.
“They [Flynn and Randall] went there, and they broke into the place. They set it up to make it look like a burglary. I guess the guy tried to run or something, they grabbed him, they threw his dog in the cellar,” Welch said. “Pete said he held the guy’s head while Bill shot him.”
Welch told police that he’d also heard Pamela Smart had promised his friends $500 each out of a life insurance policy, which investigators later learned totaled $140,000.
Investigators were at a loss for how these high schoolers were connected to Pamela Smart. Then, police got an anonymous tip about Cecilia Pierce.
Pierce, another high school student who was interning for Smart, provided the link police were missing: Pierce said Smart was not only hanging out with the high schoolers she worked with but she had also begun an affair with Flynn, the young man who Welch claimed pulled the trigger.
Pierce told police that Pamela Smart was “kinda like a big sister” to her. She told them she knew Smart and Flynn were having sex, because one night, the three were watching a movie together when Smart and Flynn went off to have sex, and Pierce “walked in on them,” Pierce said.
Smart admitted to “20/20” that her relationship with Flynn “was totally wrong.”
“It was actually very difficult because I had feelings for my husband. I loved him and I also had developed feelings for Bill, and I knew that I couldn’t continue like this,” Smart said. “It wasn’t, you know, gonna work like this forever. It was only a short relationship.”
In July 1990, Pierce wore a police-monitored body wire that recorded Pamela Smart’s apparently telling Pierce to lie to investigators.
“I’m just telling you, you know, if you tell the truth, you’re gonna be an accessory to murder,” Smart said to Pierce in the recording. “Now, you know you’re gonna be on the witness stand…and then he’ll say, ‘Did you know?’ And you’re gonna say ‘no.’ ‘Did Pame do it?’ ‘No.’”
Smart argues, however, she was only pretending to be involved, hoping it would make Pierce give her information about what police knew.
“All I wanted to know was did [Flynn] really kill my husband,” she said. “More than anything I wanted this not to be true…because I felt responsible.”
“I thought there was no way, because the person I knew, I never saw him violent, or anything like that,” Smart said of Flynn.
Smart says that her attorney had even warned her not to trust Pierce before this conversation took place.
“Let me tell you how out of whack I was,” Smart told “20/20.” “The day before this [conversation with Pierce], I had a lawyer, and he calls me up and he says, ‘Whatever you do, don’t talk to her…because she’s coming in and she’s gonna be wired.’”
Smart was arrested in August 1990. She said that at the time, she “was not really worried about it.”
“I knew that I hadn’t done anything wrong. I’m thinking this is gonna get straightened out,” Smart said.
But the young man Smart said she had developed feelings for decided to cooperate. Flynn told investigators she coerced him to commit the murder.
“I meet Pame Smart and she’s beautiful, she’s intelligent, you know, she’s an adult…and she likes me,” Flynn told police. “She said the way she sees it, the only alternative…is to kill him.”
Flynn told police she would bring up the plan to kill her husband “almost every day… She said she hated him.”
“She had told Billy something along the lines that [Gregg Smart] mistreated her, and trying to give Billy some motive…[that he] was a bad guy and deserved to die,” Paul Maggiotto, the former New Hampshire assistant attorney general who prosecuted Smart’s case, told “20/20” in a new interview.
“She had used her sexual powers to influence Bill Flynn,” Maggiotto added. “But I can’t tell you that she didn’t legitimately love him.”
Flynn, Randall, Lattime Jr. and Raymond Fowler eventually confessed to their roles in the murder and pleaded guilty to various charges. They later cooperated with authorities in their prosecution against Smart.
Randall testified that he asked her to go over “the plan” ahead of Gregg Smart’s murder. Pamela Smart gave herself an alibi by being at a work meeting while the boys killed her husband.
“I wanted to make sure everything was gonna work. And she told me she was leaving the backdoors unlocked, we could go in, make sure we didn’t turn on any lights,” Randall said on the stand. “[She said] not to hurt her dog, and that we could ransack the apartment, the condo, take what we wanted. And wait for Gregg to come home. And when Gregg came home we were to kill him.”
When Gregg Smart walked in, Flynn and Randall said they jumped him and forced him to kneel down on the floor. Randall said he held a knife in front of his face but it was Flynn who fatally shot him. Meanwhile, Fowler and Lattime Jr., the latter of whom was driving the getaway car, were waiting in the car outside.
Mark Sisti, Pamela Smart’s defense attorney, said there was “a tsunami” of media attention around Smart’s trial. He told “20/20” in a new interview that “most of it was over-the-top drama.”
“We did not have a jury that was sequestered. So, naturally, we were concerned that they were going to be affected,” Sisti said.
Sisti argued at Smart’s trial that the prosecution “made a deal with the devil.”
“Like any other wild animals, they’d chew off their own arm if they were caught in a trap,” Sisti said during Smart’s trial, referring to the four teens who cooperated with the prosecution.
During the trial, Flynn took the stand and emotionally recounted how he’d been convinced that he and Smart could only be together “if we killed Gregg. Because she can’t divorce him.”
Flynn testified at trial how he paused just before shooting Gregg Smart in the head.
“A hundred years, it seemed, and I said ‘God forgive me.’ [Then] I pulled the trigger,” Flynn said.
“I didn’t want to kill Gregg. You know, I wanted to be with Pame. And that’s what I had to do to be with Pame,” he said.
Smart said that when she sensed the jury empathizing with Flynn, she “wanted to scream.”
“I wanted to get up and say, ‘Stop lying!’” she said.
Smart told “20/20” that she “absolutely” believes Flynn lied to get a lesser sentence.
“I know he lied,” she said. “There’s only two people — three — that know the truth: me, him and God.”
“I was a woman. This happened in a small New England town and it seemed like the whole Salem witch trial thing all over again,” Smart said. “The media latched on. I was like the proverbial woman with the scarlet letter. You know, everybody could project everything on me and hate me.”
Wojas also believes her daughter did not receive a fair trial.
“When you have publicity…1,200 newspaper articles screaming her guilt, [then] you’ll put in safeguards,” Wojas said. “Stay the trial while the publicity abates. You change the venue. And you sequester the jury.”
The jury was not sequestered and the venue was not changed.
Flynn and Randall each served 25 years in prison for second-degree murder and both men were paroled in June 2015. Lattime Jr. served 15 years in prison and was paroled in August 2005. Fowler served 12 years in prison and was paroled in 2003.
When ABC News’ Diane Sawyer interviewed Flynn in 1995, she asked him what the one question he would ask Smart, if given the chance, would be.
“Whether or not she really ever loved me,” Flynn said at the time. “In hindsight, that might not seem like a very big deal to most people, but knowing that she had me do this and that I did go through with it and that she never really loved me would probably kill me.”
In a separate interview with Sawyer in 1995, Smart told her, “Yes… I think I did really love him.”
Even today, Smart says she loved Flynn.
“I loved him,” she told “20/20.” I cared for him. I had feelings. People act like I just used him and went lurking through the school looking for somebody to manipulate. And it was just really wasn’t even like that.”
(NEW YORK) — A new storm — which will strengthen into Hurricane Helene — is taking aim at Florida, where it’s forecast to make landfall along the Big Bend area as a hurricane on Thursday.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Tampa airport to close
The Tampa International Airport will close at 2 a.m. Thursday ahead of Hurricane Helene, officials said.
Airport officials expect to reopen Friday.
North Carolina declares state of emergency
North Carolina has declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Helene, Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Wednesday.
“Helene threatens heavy rain, flash flooding, landslides, and damaging winds to the mountains and Piedmont areas of our state,” the governor warned in a statement. “Now is the time for North Carolinians to prepare, make sure emergency kits are up-to-date and pay attention to the weather alerts.”
The state is preparing water rescue teams and urban search and rescue teams to help respond to the storm.
Universities, schools close as Helene approaches
Florida A&M University, the University of Tampa, the University of Florida and Florida State University’s Tallahassee campus have all announced closures ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall. The University of Tampa is under a mandatory evacuation order.
Younger students will also be out of school in counties including Pasco, Pinellas, Hernando, Citrus, Sarasota, Leon and Hillsborough.
-ABC News’ Alex Faul
Latest forecast
Helene, currently a Category 1 hurricane, is expected to rapidly intensify and could reach major category status — Category 3 — by Thursday morning.
Helene could be a high-end Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds by the time it makes landfall Thursday night in the Big Bend area of Florida. Helene might even be a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds during landfall.
A hurricane warning is in effect just north of Tampa, covering Apalachicola, Florida; Tallahassee, Florida; and Valdosta, Georgia.
A tropical storm warning is in effect in Jacksonville, Florida; Orlando, Florida; Miami; and Charleston, South Carolina.
Inland flash flooding is also a major concern.
A separate storm is bringing heavy rain to Georgia and the Carolinas on Wednesday, so the additional rain from Helene could cause a historic flood event in the southern Appalachians Thursday night into Friday.
A tropical storm watch has been extended further north to include Atlanta and Asheville, North Carolina, for Thursday night into Friday morning. Strong, damaging winds up to 70 mph are possible in Atlanta on Friday.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
University of Tampa students ordered to evacuate
The University of Tampa is ordering all students who live on campus to evacuate by 1 p.m. Wednesday, citing mandatory evacuation orders from Hillsborough County officials.
Hurricane Helene is forecast to bring dangerous storm surge to the Tampa Bay area.
“The residence halls will be closed after the evacuation concludes, and there will be no entry allowed into residential buildings until they are reopened following the storm,” the university said in a message to students.
The University of Tampa said it plans to resume operations on Monday.
-ABC News’ Alex Faul
Helene strengthens to Category 1 hurricane
Helene has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph.
Helene — now located about 500 miles south-southwest of Tampa, Florida — is the fifth hurricane to form in the Atlantic Basin this season.
64 of Florida’s 67 counties under watches or warnings
Sixty-four out of Florida’s 67 counties are under alerts as Helene nears the state, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Only three counties — Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa — are not under some type of watch or warning, like tropical storm, storm surge or hurricane, he said.
Wednesday is the last day for Floridians to finalize preparations before Helene hits, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned.
All Floridians should be prepared for power outages, DeSantis added.
At least 12 health care facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes, are evacuating, and more may choose to do so in the coming hours, the governor said.
-ABC News’ Alex Faul
Extreme flash flooding possible in Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia, Carolinas
Extreme flash flooding is possible in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
First, a storm system separate from Helene is hitting the south on Wednesday. Up to 6 inches of rain is possible over the next 24 hours, bringing a flash flood risk from Atlanta to Asheville, North Carolina.
Then, Thursday afternoon through Friday morning, Hurricane Helene will bring even more extreme rain and flooding to the southern Appalachians.
A rare “high risk” alert for heavy rain has been issued. Up to 15 inches of rain is possible in some spots.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
How storm surge works and why it’s so dangerous
Helene is forecast to bring 10 to 15 feet of dangerous storm surge to Florida’s Big Bend area, and 4 to 8 feet of storm surge to Tampa Bay.
In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina, at least 1,500 people died “directly, or indirectly, as a result of storm surge,” according to the National Hurricane Center.
Click here to read how storm surge works and why it’s so dangerous.
Helene nears hurricane strength
Tropical Storm Helene is nearing hurricane strength Wednesday morning as it churns just of the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Helene is about 100 miles west-southwest from the western tip of Cuba.
Tropical storm forecast to ‘rapidly’ intensify into major hurricane
Tropical Storm Helene was expected to “rapidly” strengthen and grow in size as it moved on Wednesday into the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. weather officials said.
The storm as of about 4 a.m. local time had maximum sustained winds of about 65 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. It was expected to intensify into a hurricane on Wednesday, before further strengthening into a “major” hurricane on Thursday, the center said.
Helene early Wednesday was traveling northwest at about 9 mph, the center said.
“On the forecast track, the center of Helene will pass near the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula this morning, move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico on later today and Thursday, and reach the Big Bend coast of Florida late Thursday,” the center said.
Biden approves Florida emergency declaration ahead of Helene’s landfall
As Florida residents prepare for Tropical Storm Helene to make landfall Thursday, the White House has approved the state’s emergency declaration.
President Biden’s approval allows for federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will coordinate all federal disaster relief efforts, according to the White House’s statement.
Biden’s approval Tuesday comes as officials in Sarasota County announced a Level A evacuation order for portions of two neighborhoods beginning Wednesday morning at 7:00 a.m. ET.
Officials encouraged residents in Curry Creek, Hatchett Creek, Venice and those in Forked Creek, Englewood to be aware of the conditions and stay alert for further updates.
Hurricane warnings issued for portions of Florida’s Panhandle, Big Bend and Gulf Coast
On the current track, Tropical Storm Helene is forecast to make landfall late Thursday night, between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. ET, as a major Category 3 hurricane with winds up to 115 mph in the Florida Big Bend region.
Hurricane warnings have been issued for Florida’s Panhandle, Big Bend and Gulf Coast regions and hurricane watch warnings have extended into southern Georgia.
Officials have issued tropical storm warnings from Naples and Fort Myers to Orlando and tropical storm watch warnings are in place across Florida’s east coast up to Savannah, Georgia.
Helene’s latest forecast
Helene is expected to strengthen to a hurricane on Wednesday as it enters the Gulf of Mexico and strengthen further to a major Category 3 hurricane by Thursday morning.
A hurricane watch is in effect in Florida from Tallahassee to Tampa, where hurricane conditions will be possible late Wednesday night through late Thursday night.
Wednesday night into Thursday morning, Helene’s outer bands will start to lash Florida’s Gulf Coast. The worst of the conditions will be throughout the day on Thursday.
Helene is forecast to make landfall Thursday night along Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane. Winds could be up to 115 mph during landfall.
Helene is expected to be a large hurricane, which means impacts will extend significantly beyond the center, impacting most of Florida and much of the Southeast.
After landfall, Helene is forecast to quickly move north into Georgia, bringing heavy rain and strong winds to the South.
A significant flash flood risk stretches from the Florida Panhandle to South Carolina — including Tallahassee to Atlanta — Thursday night into early Friday.
-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin
How much rain, storm surge to expect
Ten to 15 feet of dangerous storm surge is forecast for Florida’s Big Bend area. Tampa Bay could see 4 to 8 feet of storm surge.
Four to 8 inches of rain is expected from Helene, with 12 inches locally, bringing major flash flooding.
Tornadoes are also possible on Wednesday and Thursday.
Damaging wind gusts over 100 mph will be possible in Tallahassee and Florida’s Big Bend area during landfall Thursday night.
-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin
Universities, schools close ahead of Helene
Ahead of Helene, Florida A&M University in Tallahassee canceled class from Tuesday afternoon through Friday. The university will be closed Wednesday through Friday.
Florida A&M said this weekend’s home football game and parents’ weekend will be rescheduled.
Florida State University said its Tallahassee campus will be closed from Wednesday morning to Sunday night.
FSU Tallahassee students can stay on campus during the closure, but should plan for possible power outages and be prepared to possibly stay inside all day Thursday, the university warned.
Officials in Florida are also closing public schools in multiple counties, including Pasco, Pinellas, Hernando, Citrus and Sarasota.
Mandatory evacuations have been announced in parts of Charlotte and Franklin counties.
Helene strengthens to tropical storm: Latest forecast
Helene, currently located about 180 miles east southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, strengthened to a tropical storm on Tuesday morning.
The forecast shows Helene moving through the Yucatan Channel Wednesday morning, bringing near hurricane-force wind gusts to Cancun, Mexico.
By Thursday morning, coastal flooding will reach Florida, including Naples and Fort Myers.
On Thursday night, Helene will make landfall near Apalachicola, Florida.
Dangerous wind gusts up to 105 mph are expected and storm surge will be a major threat for the Tampa Bay area.
By Friday morning, the center of Helene will be near Atlanta, bringing strong winds to Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Downed trees and power lines will be a major danger across the Southeast.
The flash flood threat will continue into the weekend in the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys.
State of emergency declared in 61 Florida counties
Helene is forecast to be a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall Thursday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Monday.
A state of emergency has been declared in 61 of Florida’s 67 counties, DeSantis said.
“The Big Bend and Panhandle should be especially prepared for a direct impact,” the governor said, and he urged residents to know their evacuation zone.
“You have time to be able to put this place into place,” DeSantis said, noting Helene’s impacts could begin Wednesday.
Latest forecast
Helene will strengthen to a hurricane Tuesday night, and rain is expected to begin in Florida Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning.
On Thursday evening, Helene will make landfall along Florida’s Big Bend area, located between Tallahassee and Gainesville.
Storm surge could reach up to 15 feet in the Big Bend area.
Heavy rain and strong winds are also major threats.
A hurricane watch is in effect for Florida’s Gulf Coast and a tropical storm watch was issued from Orlando to the Florida Keys.
By Thursday night into Friday, the storm will quickly push into Georgia with very heavy rain, gusty winds and possible flash flooding.
This weekend, the storm will stall over the Mid-South, bringing heavy rain and possible flooding to the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys.
A flood watch has been issued in Florida from Fort Myers to Tampa to Tallahassee, as well as in southern Georgia and Alabama.
(OROVILLE, Calif.) — A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting a massive Northern California wildfire in July that destroyed 26 homes and businesses and prompted the evacuation of nearly 30,000 people, officials said.
Spencer Grant Anderson of Oroville, California, was arraigned on Monday on charges of arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land and arson causing multiple structures to burn, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.
Anderson was ordered to return to court on Wednesday after he has a chance to speak to his court-appointed attorney, prosecutors said.
“It was a long-term investigation. There are a lot of moving parts. Right now it’s an accusation and everybody has a right to a trial,” Anderson’s attorney, Larry Pilgrim, told ABC News on Tuesday as he waited at the Butte County Jail to speak to his client for the first time.
Pilgrim said he plans to ask for a continuance in the case to allow him to review the evidence. He said Anderson will enter a plea at a later date.
Investigators from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) identified Anderson as a possible suspect a day after the Thompson Fire ignited near the town of Oroville on July 2, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said at a news conference on Monday.
“For 50 days, Cal Fire devoted four to six investigators per day, brought in from around the state, to continuously watch Anderson as other investigators meticulously built the case,” Ramsey said. “If Anderson had chosen to light another fire, we were confident the surveillance personnel would be able to detect and stop the fire before it could get out of control.”
Anderson was taken into custody on Aug. 22 when Cal Fire investigators executed search warrants and “located evidence further implicating Anderson in starting the Thompson fire,” prosecutors said in a statement without elaborating on the evidence.
Ramsey said that on the day the fire was ignited, Cal Fire investigators pinpointed the area where the fire started near the intersection of Cherokee and Thompson Flat roads in a rural area northeast of Oroville and quickly determined the “fire was caused by an intentional human act.”
“Arson by its very terms is a very difficult crime to solve because it burns up the evidence,” Ramsey said, praising the work of investigators on the case.
Ramsey said several 911 callers and witnesses in the area at the time the fire started reported seeing a blue Toyota driving in the area and investigators determined the fire was most likely started by a flaming object thrown from the Toyota as it drove southbound on Cherokee Road.
Using automatic license plate readers in the area, investigators were able to identify the Toyota and trace it to Anderson, Ramsey said.
“Anderson was arrested and questioned. He admitted that on the morning of the fire, he purchased fireworks from a firework stand in Oroville, then went up to Cherokee Road to ‘test one’ by throwing it out his car window,” prosecutors said in the statement.
In addition to destroying 26 structures, including 13 homes, the Thompson Fire damaged eight structures and burned 3,789 acres before it was fully contained on July 8, according to Cal Fire. Two firefighters were injured battling the blaze, Cal Fire said.
If convicted of the charges, Anderson faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison, according to prosecutors. Anderson has been ordered to be held without bail at the Butte County Jail.
The Thompson Fire was the second wildfire deliberately set in Butte County in July. On July 24, the Park Fire was deliberately started in Bidwell Park near Chico and spread to more than 429,000 acres across Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, was arrested on a felony count of arson of an inhabited structure or property, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. Stout has pleaded not guilty.
Stout was allegedly spotted pushing a car that was on fire down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, igniting the Park Fire, now the fourth largest wildfire in California history, according to prosecutors.
