Ivan Gomez, 31, was convicted by a Monterey County judge of setting the Big Sur Dolan fire while illegally growing marijuana in the Los Padres National Forest.
Furniture sits as a firefighter monitors a controlled burn to protect a home on Highway 1 while fighting the Dolan Fire near Big Sur, California, U.S., on Sept. 13, 2020. Photographer: Nic Coury/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesA man who started a 2020 wildfire that killed 12 endangered California condors and seriously injured a firefighter was convicted Thursday of arson and could face up to 24 years in state prison when he is sentenced, prosecutors said.
The blaze erupted on Aug. 18, 2020, on the central coast northwest of Los Angeles. It destroyed 10 homes and an 80-acre condor sanctuary in Big Sur that since 1997 had been used to release captive-bred condors into the wild. There weren’t any condors in the facility at the time but a dozen birds died as the blaze spread across 125,000 acres of forest.
Gomez, who was shirtless and sweating, confessed to setting the blaze and was carrying several lighters that matched others found at the spot where the fire ignited, the DA’s office said.
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