LOS ANGELES – Two men involved in setting an illegal campfire above Glendora that erupted out of control to become the destructive Colby Fire were sentenced Monday to federal prison.
Clifford Eugene Henry Jr, 22, of Glendora, received a prison term of 6 months, plus a three-year term of supervised release, and Steven Robert Aguirre, 21, of Baldwin Park, received a prison term of 5 months, plus a three-year term of supervised release.
Clifford Henry and Steven Aguirre were tried together in May and each was found guilty of four charges (one felony and three misdemeanors) related to the fire.
The government agreed at today’s hearing to dismiss one misdemeanor charge.
One other defendant in the case, Jonathan Carl Jarrell, was also found guilty of a felony offense of unlawfully setting timber afire and a misdemeanor offense of illegally starting a fire.
Jarrell is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
“The devastation directly caused by defendants conduct points to the incredible seriousness of their offense,” prosecutors wrote in a brief filed in relation to the sentencing. “But the fact that it could have been worse underscores that degree of seriousness. But for the quick thinking and courageous reactions of the Glendora and Azusa Police Departments to evacuate the residents in harm’s way; but for the heroic actions of individual fire fighters, helicopter pilots and aircraft tanker pilots in battling the blaze; but for the winds dying down and the humidity increasing…this could have been so much worse.”
The Colby Fire started on the morning of January 16. By that evening, the fire had consumed more than 1,700 acres of federal, state, local and private lands.
The fire destroyed six residences, damaged eight other residences and 17 additional structures, and resulted in injuries to one civilian and two firefighters. Prosecutors argued that the damages and costs associated with fire-fighting efforts were in excess of $6,000,000.
Henry and Aguirre were detained by Glendora Police Officers after they were seen fleeing from area of the fire in a flood control channel.
During interviews with Glendora Police and personnel with the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Arson Investigations Unit – interviews that the jury heard during the trial – both defendants admitted playing a role in the starting the illegal campfire that led to the Colby Fire after wind blew burning paper into the brush in the hills above Glendora.
Strong Santa Ana winds drove the fire into the residential communities below the hills.
A United States Forest Service fire investigator determined that the origin of the Colby Fire was at a point near a fire ring built by the three men at a location on federal lands within the Angeles National Forest, officials said.