|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
|
Staff Report –
Two years to the day after a burning car rolled into a Chico gully and ignited a nightmare, the man who pushed it was found guilty.
A Butte County Superior Court judge convicted Ronnie Dean Stout II of arson on Friday for starting the 2024 Park Fire, ruling he acted willfully and maliciously when his flaming Toyota went down an embankment near Alligator Hole in Upper Bidwell Park. Judge Kristen Lucena also found all special allegations true, clearing the way for a sentence of 25 years to life given Stout’s prior strike convictions.
The Park Fire ignited on July 24, 2024 and exploded into the fourth largest wildfire in California history, burning 429,603 acres across Butte and Tehama counties. It destroyed more than 700 structures, including hundreds of homes in Cohasset and Forest Ranch, forced thousands to evacuate and temporarily shut down Lassen Volcanic National Park.
Prosecutors argued Stout’s actions created a disaster waiting to happen, with red flag conditions, bone-dry vegetation and extreme heat primed to turn a single spark into a monster. Witnesses testified they saw him trying to free his stuck car before the blaze took off. The defense claimed it was all an accident, an argument the judge rejected after a three-day bench trial.
Stout is scheduled for sentencing on October 9 in Oroville.
For the communities still rebuilding inside the Park Fire’s massive footprint, the verdict closes one chapter. The recovery has plenty left to go.
__
Reporting from Active NorCal.
__
If you like this story and independent radio news service you can help Fund Yosemite Radio, KNHA 100.9 FM with GoFundMe.
Leave a Reply