On Friday, a man was arrested in Azusa — a city east of Pasadena where one of L.A.'s largest fires is raging — … and police say he may have tried to start another fire.
Azusa PD tells TMZ … officers were dispatched to a local park just before midnight for a brush fire – where they claim a witness told them the man who started the fire was still at the scene.
The officers located the suspect – a “transient” by name Jose Carranza Escobar – who they claim admitted to starting the fire. Police officers then arrested Carranza-Escobar.
Los Angeles County firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire – and several other government agencies are currently assessing the extent of the damage caused by the fire.
Police have a “zero tolerance” policy for incidents like these… so it sounds like they plan to use the weapon to punish people who allegedly start fires in the area.
In fact, the Los Angeles District Attorney has already assigned an arson division prosecutor to the case… and police tell us the evidence will be presented for possible charges as early as Monday.
Azusa is located about 16 miles east of Altadena…the city devastated by the Eaton Fire – a major blaze in northeast LA that burned more than 14,000 acres. It is the second-largest fire to break out in LA this week – about 10,000 acres smaller than the Pacific Palisades wildfire in West LA