A still-raging wildfire that’s already burned more than 120,000 acres in California — making it the state’s largest of the year thus far — was started by an ex-con and registered sex offender who pushed a burning car into a park gully, authorities said Thursday.
The inferno, now known as the Park Fire, ignited when the 42-year-old suspect, Ronnie Dean Stout II, allegedly rolled the vehicle into a gully in Bidwell Park near the city of Chico just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Butte County District Attorney.
The flaming car shot 60 feet down an embankment and burned to a crisp while spreading flames into the surrounding areas — eventually prompting mass evacuations in nearby Butte and Tehama counties.
Stout was then seen calmly leaving the scene of the fire by blending in with parkgoers fleeing the “rapidly evolving fire,” the DA said in a release.
The blaze quickly grew in size thanks to wind gusts and was only 3% contained by Thursday evening.
Arson investigators with Cal Fire and the DA’s office identified the suspect as Stout — who was sentenced to 20 years in state prison for a 2002 robbery conviction — and arrested him early Thursday morning.
Stout, of Chico, was booked into Butte County Jail where he’s being held until his arraignment scheduled on Monday.
He is facing arson charges and has two previous “strike” felony convictions, which he’ll also be charged with under California law.
He was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 in 2001 and robbery with great bodily injury in 2002, according to the DA.
Under the state’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law, Stout could be handed a life sentence if he’s convicted for the alleged arson because he has two prior convictions for “serious or violent” crimes as defined by the California Penal Code.