A suspected California arsonist was arrested days after he allegedly started the San Bernardino Line Fire, which has burned across thousands of acres of forest, east of Los Angeles.
Justin Wayne Halstenberg was charged on Tuesday following a San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department investigation into the wildfire that burned over 34,000 acres since it first sparked last week.
“Highland Station detectives, in collaboration with Cal Fire investigators, identified Justin Wayne Halstenberg as the suspect who started a fire in the area of Baseline Road and Alpin Street in the city of Highland, also known as the Line Fire, on September 5, 2024,” the sheriff’s office said.
A 34-year-old California man was arrested five days after he allegedly sparked the Line Fire in San Bernardino on Sept. 5, 2024. ZUMAPRESS.com
The 34-year-old suspect was slapped with Arson of an inhabited structure, Arson of forest land and Possession of flammable material DVC Arson, jail records viewed by The Post showed.
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He is being held at San Bernardino’s Central Detention Center on a $80,000 bail.
Police did not reveal how Halstenberg allegedly started the inferno.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 12 at 12:30 p.m.
The Line Fire started around 6:33 p.m. on Sept. 5 and has destroyed 34,289 acres inside the San Bernardino National Forest. The blaze is only 14 percent contained as of Wednesday morning, according to the California Fire website.
The 34-year-old suspect was slapped with Arson of an inhabited structure, Arson of forest land and Possession of flammable material DVC Arson. Getty Images
Residents along the southern edge of Big Bear Lake were told to leave the area, a popular destination for anglers, bikers and hikers.
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The blaze had charred more than 51 square miles of grass and brush and blanketed the area with a thick cloud of dark smoke.
Three firefighters have been injured since the blaze was reported Thursday. AFP via Getty Images
The acrid air prompted several districts in the area to close schools through the end of the week because of safety concerns.
Three firefighters have been injured since the blaze was reported Thursday, state fire managers said.
Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for areas north and east of the fire including popular ski town Bear Bear.
Evacuation warnings were given to the communities directly south of the national forest which included parts of the city of Highland.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed the National Guard to assist in the evacuations.
Over 2,800 personnel have been allocated to fighting the fire as 65,600 structures are threatened.
The acrid air prompted several districts in the area to close schools through the end of the week because of safety concerns. Getty Images
Wildfires have broken out across the Golden State sprung to life during a triple-digit heat wave that finally broke Wednesday.
Officials hope cooler temperatures expected for later in the week will moderate the fire activity.
Just over 30 miles west on the San Bernardino-Los Angeles County line, the Bridge Fire has burned 46,727 acres.
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People watch the Line Fire from the side of teh CA 38 highway as the blaze burns in the foothills of the San Bernardino National Forest on Sept. 9, 2024. APU GOMES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
California air quality officials have sued four truck manufacturers for breaching a voluntary agreement to follow the state’s nation-leading emissions rules, the state announced Tuesday.
What happened: Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office filed a complaint Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, arguing that the country’s four largest truck-makers — Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo North America — violated an enforceable contract that they signed with the California Air Resources Board in 2023.
The lawsuit comes two months after the manufacturers filed their own complaint in federal court, arguing the agreement — known as the Clean Truck Partnership — is no longer valid after Republicans overturned California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule in June through the Congressional Review Act.
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Why it matters: The move sets up a fight to determine whether the federal system or state courts — where CARB would have a higher likelihood of prevailing — will review the case.
California, along with other states, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins for halting SNAP benefits, cutting off food aid for over 41 million Americans, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta.
About 85% of elementary schools studied in California experienced some loss of trees between 2018 and 2022, according to a paper from the University of California, Davis, published this month in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.
Members of the UC Davis Urban Science Lab found that while the average decline was less than 2%, some districts in the Central Valley — including schools with few trees to lose — lost up to a quarter of their tree cover. The most severe losses were concentrated in Tulare County, while the most notable gains were found in Imperial County.
This map, figure 2B from the study, illustrates the net change in tree canopy cover at urban school districts between 2018 and 2022. Canopy losses tended to cluster in the Central Valley and parts of Southern California. (UC Davis)
The findings are troubling as climate change will likely intensify extreme heat and drought conditions. The study underscores an urgent need to improve tree canopy in low-shade, high-need schools and to protect existing tree cover in areas facing loss.
“We are trying to measure to what extent we are exposing kids to temperatures that might be stressing their body to a level that becomes uncomfortable or dangerous,” said Alessandro Ossola, an associate professor of plant sciences who directs the Urban Science Lab at UC Davis.
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The team continued the research this past summer at elementary schools across the state, measuring tree canopies and maximum temperatures at playgrounds, basketball courts, soccer fields and other outdoor spaces.
UC Davis researchers discovered California school playgrounds are hitting a scorching 120°F heat index. Watch as they use high-tech sensors and a roving cart named MaRTyna to measure extreme heat across elementary schools. (Jael Mackendorf/UC Davis)
Tree canopies cover only about 4% to 6% of the average California school campus. That means the roughly 5.8 million K-12 public school students in California often take breaks and participate in outdoor activities under the glaring sun.
As part of the work, researchers mapped tree cover and heat over the course of a hot day at schools in inland and coastal areas of Northern and Southern California.
UC Davis student Tyler Reece Wakabayashi works with MaRTyna, a roving cart that measures information related to mean radiant temperature and other data points. (Jael Mackendorf /UC Davis)
The research is a joint effort with UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UCLA and is funded by the U.S. Forest Service and supported by the nonprofit Green Schoolyards America through its California Schoolyard Tree Canopy study.
“Most schools are actually a nature desert, which is antithetical because we know that early life exposure of humans to nature is critical for them to develop skills, improve their microbiome, become more environmentally active and so on,” Ossola said. “Trees are a hidden asset and an underutilized asset.”
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This news release is adapted from a longer article from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Read their full feature story, “Researchers Measure Schoolyard Heat One Step at a Time.”
