This browser does not support the Video element.
Enormous wall of Caldor Fire flames consumes Grizzly Flats
Two weeks after the Dixie Fire destroyed most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville, the Caldor Fire a few miles southeast exploded through tinder-dry trees and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a forest community of around 1,200 people. Elissa Harrington reports
PLACERVILLE, Calif. - A father and son charged with sparking the devastating Caldor Fire that destroyed about 1,000 homes near Lake Tahoe earlier this year are out of jail after a judge vastly reduced their bail, largely rejecting prosecutors’ arguments that the duo posed a flight risk.
Travis Shane Smith, 32, had his $1 million bail reduced to $50,000 and his father David Scott Smith, 66, had his $1 million bail reduced to $25,000 on Monday after their attorneys argued the men had no criminal history and no reason to leave behind their families, The Sacramento Bee reported.
The Smiths were arrested Dec. 8 and charged in El Dorado County with recklessly starting a fire and illegal possession of a silencer. Travis Smith is also charged with illegal conversion or manufacture of a machine gun.
Travis Smith’s attorney, Mark Reichel, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that prosecutors have not laid out their theory as to how the men started the Aug. 14 Caldor Fire, which destroyed about 1,000 homes and other buildings, injured five people and forced tens of thousands of other to flee their homes.
This browser does not support the Video element.
'Only one way out of town': Thousands flee from Caldor Fire in Tahoe area
Flames from the Caldor Fire have reached the Echo Summit in Lake Tahoe. This, as tens of thousands of residents are under a mandatory evacuation order. Warnings were in place over the weekend, but on Monday those warnings became an order. Highway 50 was choked and at a standstill.
"They’re very happy to be out," Reichel said. "They weren’t very happy to be arrested."
Prosecutor Nora Hall argued that potential prison sentences — at least a dozen years for each men — made them potential flight risks and that Shane Smith’s social media posts indicated a lack of concern for proper firearms safety.
But El Dorado Superior Court Judge Ralph Marks said a bail reduction was warranted because there was no evidence the men acted maliciously or with intent. The charges also did not indicate they posed a danger to the community, the judge said.
Reichel and Linda Parisi, attorney for the elder Smith, said the men were in the area where the fire sparked and called 911 to report flames.
The criminal complaints do not specify how the machine gun and silencer tie into the Caldor Fire and the DA’s office has not offered an explanation. An email from AP to the office seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The fire crossed three Northern California counties, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate the resort town of South Lake Tahoe and surrounding areas before it was contained in October.
The next scheduled court date for the Smiths is Feb. 1.