The following is a press release from the CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit The information has not been proven in a court of law and any individuals described should be presumed innocent until proven guilty:

CAL FIRE Law Enforcement arrested an adult male out of Cloverdale in connection to
the cause of the 11-acre Pocket Fire Saturday north of Geyserville.
The subject was arrested and booked into the Sonoma County Jail in Santa Rosa on one felony charge and three misdemeanor charges. The felony charge was on Penal Code § 452 (c) for unlawfully causing a fire of a structure or forest land and the three misdemeanors were on violations of Health and Safety Code § 13001 as well as California Public Resource Codes § 4431 and § 4421.

The cause of the Pocket Fire was determined to be the result of using a riding lawn mower in cured annual grasses, four-feet tall. The riding lawn mower used is designed for wet, green lawns, not for dry weeds or grass. The metal blades on riding lawn mowers can spark fires when hitting rocks.
Aside from lawnmowers, other equipment used that can spark a wildfire include weed-eaters, chainsaws, grinders, welders, tractors, and trimmers. Defensible space work is critical to help create a perimeter around your home to protect it from a wildfire, but only when done under the right weather conditions. CAL FIRE urges the public to avoid any activities that may ignite a wildfire.
Given the combination of extreme heat, elevated fire conditions and an abundant, cured grass and shrub crop across most of California, CAL FIRE will have maximum enforcement on human-caused wildfires. This is the second arrest made this week by CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Law Enforcement Officers in connection to the cause of a wildland fire.
The Pocket Fire started at 11:19 a.m. Saturday near Pocket Ranch Road and Ridge Oaks Road. CAL FIRE’s initial attack strategy is to keep 95 percent of all fires at 10 acres or less. By the time Air Attack had arrived overhead it had already exceeded that size, but a coordinated air and ground attack was able to quickly contain the fire once resources were at scene.
Along with CAL FIRE, additional responding agencies included the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District, the Healdsburg Fire Department and the Cloverdale Fire District.
No structures were damaged or destroyed in the fire and no injuries were reported.
Saturday’s fire burned in the same footprint as the 2017 Pocket Fire, which was a part of the Central LNU Complex. That fire started on Oct. 9, 2017 and consumed 17,357 acres.
To learn more about preparing for the threat of wildfire, visit ReadyForWildfire.org.
Sadly yet another one of our aspiring to be a rocket scientist has been locked up behind bars.
I find it funny that people are outraged by his arrest but I would suspect their opinion would be different if they lost their home to someone’s stupidity. You live in a fire zone, how do you not know?? I just moved up here from the city and I know what not to do up in this tinder box!!!! People throw cigarettes out the car windows on Boonville road/253 because they don’t give a f, it’s not ignorance!!
Who is outraged?
Don’t you know snarky commentary and sarcasm when you read it?
If not you are not much brighter than the dumb fuck that started the fire.
Ignorance is not an excuse in these situations. Glad they were arrested.
People need to be safe and responsible.
So, what am I supposed to do–let the tall dry grass stand tall along the roadside in front of my property that Mendocino County DOT owns but never cuts catch fire some other way and spread to my place? I have been trying to weed eat it, which is not easy because wild pigs have dug deep holes in it and it’s full of tough star thistle so I have to use scissors to cut down the star thistle.
No, you’re just supposed to do it EARLY IN THE GODDAMNED DAY. IS IT REALLY THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND?
And if it’s too hard of work to do on your own, call in a landscaping company to do it.
I understand it is supposed to be taken care of by the DOT, and short from marching down and demanding help, you’re not gonna get much from them.
Looks like they charged him with everything they thought they could. It’s a DA’s favorite conviction tactic, charge multiple misdemeanors and add a felony charge for good measure.
Then use the threat of the felony and jail time to get the defendant to plead to a minor charge with probation or maybe with “time served”, It’s still one in the win column for the DA.
If he has his own lawyer, it will probably get thrown out, it he has a Public Defender they will convince him to plead. I sure hope I don’t ever get sucked up into a situation like that. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it can never happen to you. We are all just a couple of bad decisions away from it, and the bad decisions don’t even need to be yours.
It’s not hard. People are the stupidest animals. Every fire you have ever seen has been started by a naked ape. Metal makes sparks, plastic string does not. Get ready for a lot more of this. With schools not teaching, importing people whose culture is to first litter, and less funding for public information we are doomed to all this.
“Every fire you have ever seen has been started by a naked ape.”
Even the lightning fires?