Cal Fire: Buildings In White Meadows Area Damaged By King Fire
2:40 p.m. Update:
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) - The man suspected of deliberately starting a fire that is now threatening thousands of homes in Northern California has pleaded not guilty to an arson charge.
Wayne Allen Huntsman entered the plea Friday. He appeared briefly in an El Dorado County courtroom, keeping his head down most of the time.
Huntsman was arrested Wednesday. Authorities have not said what led them to him, or released a possible motive.
Huntsman's sister, Tami Criswell, has said she doubts her brother started the fire but if he did, it wasn't intentional.
The district attorney's office has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to sign Senate Bill 930, which would reinstate increased penalties for people convicted of large-scale arson -- like that of the King Fire. The law had been allowed to sunset at the beginning of the year.
Read the full letter by the DA's office to Gov. Brown here.
The blaze has damaged or destroyed multiple structures and driven 2,800 people from their homes. It has consumed about 120 square miles and is 10 percent contained.
1 p.m. Update:
EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) – Cal Fire confirms that some buildings in the King Fire area have been damaged or destroyed.
Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire's public information officer, released a statement that an unknown number of structures in the White Meadows area have been damage. However, he did not have information on the extent of the damage.
More than 12,000 homes are threatened by the fire. About 119 square miles have been burned as of Friday morning.
Wayne Allen Huntsman, a 37-year-old man, is accused of starting the fire.
1:22 p.m. Update:
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) - The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has set an agency record for the amount of retardant dropped on a wildfire in a single day.
State fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff says air tankers on Wednesday poured 203,375 gallons of the red slurry on an explosive Northern California wildfire that has now burned through nearly 120 square miles of timber and vegetation.
As of Friday, Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service together had dumped 530,000 gallons on the El Dorado County blaze.
Tolmachoff says the fire is burning so fiercely it is running through the retardant lines because of the extreme drought conditions.
The wind-whipped wildfire 60 miles east of Sacramento is just 10 percent contained. About 2,800 people are evacuated.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.
