Details emerge on how convicted arsonist started 2019 Mountain Fire near Redding

Michele Chandler, Redding Record Searchlight
·2 min read
1

Eric Michael Smith, who was recently convicted on arson charges involving federal land, is facing an additional seven years in prison for his role in starting the Mountain Fire northeast of Redding.

Smith used a lighter to ignite materials that created the short-lived but brutal fire that burned 600 acres over five days in late August 2019, injuring three people, destroying 14 structures and damaging seven others.

Smith pleaded guilty and will be sentenced to seven years in prison, the Shasta County District Attorney's Office announced on March 1. His sentencing is scheduled for April 11 in Shasta County Superior Court.

Authorities were able to tie Smith to the Mountain Fire after receiving information that placed the Shasta County resident in the area near where the wildfire broke out on Aug. 22, at the intersection of Bear Mountain Road and Dry Creek Road in Bella Vista.

That led to Smith being a suspect, said the DA's office said.

"When questioned by law enforcement, (Smith) made statements that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's investigators were able to disprove, indicating that he had been dishonest, demonstrating both that he had a motivation to lie and was attempting to incriminate someone else," according to the statement from the DA's office. "The fire was also determined to be arson and the M.O. matched later fires to which he confessed."

During an in-custody arraignment on Feb. 14, the DA's office charged Smith with three counts of arson and related enhancements in connection with starting the Mountain Fire.

The recent sentence is in addition to a 30-month prison sentence Smith received in federal court on Feb. 13 for other arson-related charges, according to the agency.

Prosecution of the Mountain Fire case was delayed while Smith faced the federal government in connection to a series of fires he set on federal lands in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on June 23, July 21, July 23 and July 25, 2020, according to court documents.

Smith could have faced a maximum 20 years in prison on those four counts, according to the plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District in May 2022.

On the same day he was sentenced in the federal case, the DA's office, with the assistance of Cal Fire, arranged for Smith to be arrested in Sacramento and taken back to Shasta County to face his charges there.

After sentencing in federal court, authorities released Smith with an order to surrender himself to federal custody no later than April 10.

Air tankers on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019 hit this field with a good drop of retardant on the Mountain Fire.
Air tankers on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019 hit this field with a good drop of retardant on the Mountain Fire.

Michele Chandler covers criminal justice issues for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Follow her on Twitter at @MChandler_RS, call her at 530-338-7753 or email her at michele.chandler@redding.com. Please support our entire newsroom's commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Arsonist used lighter to start 2019 Mountain Fire near Redding