Wildfire arrest

last updated 8 January 2015

Cabazon, Calif.

Police this week made an arrest in their investigation of a suspicious wildfire last week that claimed the lives of five firefighters, scarred more than 40,000 acres, and destroyed 30 homes. Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, was arrested Tuesday at his mother’s home in Banning, Calif, on two counts of arson linked to two other wildfires in June. He was also described as a “person of interest” in last week’s blaze, which began as a brushfire in Cabazon, about 20 miles west of Palm Springs. High winds soon spread the flames across the area’s parched hills. The five deaths made it the greatest loss of firefighters in a single incident while battling a wildfire since 14 were killed in July 1994 near Glenwood Springs, Colo.