Woman makes court appearance in California wildfire
Date: 29-Jul-02
Country: USA
Peri Van Brunt, 45, did not enter a plea at Friday's hearing at the U.S. District Court in Fresno, California.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis Beck set a detention hearing for Wednesday and a preliminary hearing for Aug. 9, the court clerk said.
Van Brunt is being held by the U.S. Marshals Service until the hearing, prosecutors said.
She was arrested on Wednesday, three days after starting a campfire 12 miles north of Kernville, Calif. that allegedly escaped and grew into a 60,000-acres blaze that forced evacuations of 1,000 people and has come dangerously close to some of the most highly valued groves of giant sequoias.
Kernville is 115 miles (185.1 km) north of Los Angeles.
Investigators initially said Van Brunt apparently set what became the McNalley wildfire accidentally while cooking hot dogs.
They decided to charge Van Brunt because she did not have a permit to start a campfire in the drought-stricken national forest, and she did not clear tinder-dry underbrush from around the area where she set the campfire, said Carl Faller, chief assistant U.S. attorney for Fresno.
"The ultimate result may not have been something she contemplated, but the results ... were intentional and willful and that is the basis of the charge," Faller said.
Van Brunt's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.