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LOS ANGELES - A California car mechanic already jailed on suspicion of arson has been charged with setting a wildfire that killed five firefighters, destroyed 34 homes and charred an area nearly three times the size of Manhattan.
Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, was charged with five counts of murder, 11 counts of arson and 10 counts of using an incendiary device and could face the death penalty if he is convicted. He proclaimed his innocence in a jailhouse interview with a local newspaper.
The wildfire broke out last week in the small California town of Cabazon, about 12 miles from Oyler's home in Beaumont, and blackened some 63 square miles before it was contained by firefighters on Monday.
Prosecutors said they had not decided whether to seek the death penalty against Oyler, an auto mechanic with a criminal record but no arson convictions.
"The lives and tragic deaths of the five-man fire crew will be considered ... As well as the impact of their deaths on their families," Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco told reporters. "The feelings of the surviving family members will be considered and given great weight by our office."
Oyler, who was arrested on Tuesday in connection with two fires set earlier this year, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that he was innocent.
"I haven't done anything with any fires. Fires hurt people," Oyler told the paper. "All I know is I didn't do this and they're trying to pin this on me. They need to find the real person."
Authorities, who had offered a US$500,000 reward in the case, did not disclose their evidence against Oyler.
The heavily tattooed suspect told the Press-Enterprise that detectives, who trailed him for several days before he was taken into custody, had taken boots and other items from his house. He said he gave police a sample of his DNA but refused to submit to a lie-detector test.
The five US Forest Service firefighters were killed when they were overtaken by flames while trying to defend homes.
Mark Loutzenhiser, 43, Jason McKay and Jess McLean, both 27; and 20-year-old Daniel Hoover-Najera died shortly after being rushed to a local hospital with critical burns. The fifth member of the crew, 23-year-old Pablo Cerda, died on Tuesday.
It was the worst tragedy to befall the Forest Service in a single wildfire since 1994, when 14 firefighters were killed in Colorado.
- REUTERS
