Crime & Safety
Illegal Pot Farm May Have Caused Huge Rim Fire
An illicit marijuana grow is "highly suspect" among the possible causes of the enormous Rim Fire that has burned 348 square miles in the Sierras and destroyed Berkeley's Tuolumne Camp, according to a fire official battling the flames.
Posted Sept. 2, 2013, 8:31 p.m.; updated Sept. 5, 11:28 a.m.
The enormous Rim Fire that destroyed Berkeley's Tuolumne Camp and part of Yosemite National Park may have been started by an illegal marijuana operation, according to a fire official involved in the massive battle against the inferno.
Todd McNeal, a division group supervisor in the multi-agency firefighting effort, told a community meeting that it was "highly suspect that there might have been some sort of illicit grove, a marijuana-grow-type thing," according to the San Jose Mercury News.
"We don't know the exact cause," said McNeal, who is also fire chief of Twain Harte, a town in the area of the fire. "We know it's human caused. There was no lightning in the area."
McNeal's comments were recorded in a YouTube video that was posted Aug. 23 but that did not receive much attention until the news was picked up by a wide range of news media, including NBC Bay Area today, Monday, and Fox News and the Japan Times on Sunday.
No official cause has been released.
"The cause is still under investigation," said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Forest Stanton Florea, according to the Mercury News. "There has been progress in the case, but we can't share any additional details at this time."
Meanwhile, the Forest Service reported early today that containment of the fire had reached 60 percent and that the area burned had grown to 228,670, or 357 square miles. The total number of personnel on the scene today was 4,616, the agency said.
It's the largest wildfire in the United States so far this year and the fourth largest in California records dating to 1932, according to the Forest Service.
See also:
The enormous Rim Fire that destroyed Berkeley's Tuolumne Camp and part of Yosemite National Park may have been started by an illegal marijuana operation, according to a fire official involved in the massive battle against the inferno.
Todd McNeal, a division group supervisor in the multi-agency firefighting effort, told a community meeting that it was "highly suspect that there might have been some sort of illicit grove, a marijuana-grow-type thing," according to the San Jose Mercury News.
"We don't know the exact cause," said McNeal, who is also fire chief of Twain Harte, a town in the area of the fire. "We know it's human caused. There was no lightning in the area."
McNeal's comments were recorded in a YouTube video that was posted Aug. 23 but that did not receive much attention until the news was picked up by a wide range of news media, including NBC Bay Area today, Monday, and Fox News and the Japan Times on Sunday.
No official cause has been released.
"The cause is still under investigation," said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Forest Stanton Florea, according to the Mercury News. "There has been progress in the case, but we can't share any additional details at this time."
Meanwhile, the Forest Service reported early today that containment of the fire had reached 60 percent and that the area burned had grown to 228,670, or 357 square miles. The total number of personnel on the scene today was 4,616, the agency said.
It's the largest wildfire in the United States so far this year and the fourth largest in California records dating to 1932, according to the Forest Service.
See also:
- Colossal Inferno – Time-Lapse of Rim Fire at Yosemite
- Berkeley Officials Not Optimistic About Tuolumne Camp After Fire
- Berkeley's Tuolumne Camp Burns in Sierras Wildfire
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