I went off to try and find the area where the fire might have started,” he said.

“I went up there and after a quick assessment of the fire.

The Cedar fire, which killed 14 people, was raging south of the Paradise fire, while several blazes in San Bernardino County also were burning out of control.Įidsmoe went to the Valley Center scene within three hours of the fire’s start. The day the fire started was one of the worst for fire in California history. Morphew, a horse trainer and riding coach, was trying to save the 10 Arabian horses on her property.įrom the beginning, investigators knew the Paradise fire would be a tough one. Morphew died as she was trying to climb out of a ravine where she had accidentally driven her truck. The teen was an Irish dancer and had hoped to attend Dublin’s Trinity University. The flames caught up to the vehicle, and Roach couldn’t get out in time. Roach was in a car with her siblings, trying to drive away from the fire. Valley Center residents Ashleigh Roach, 16, and Nancy Morphew, 51, were killed within hours of the fire’s start. After the fire started, Santa Ana winds swept the flames over dry brush. The conditions last fall in Valley Center, which is nearly 40 miles northeast of San Diego, were perfect for a blaze, Eidsmoe said. The Paradise fire, so named because it began near Paradise Creek Road on the Rincon Indian Reservation, started about 1:15 a.m. “In our area it’s a very big possibility,” she said, “because it’s very green here. “It looks like somebody did it because, in the beginning, it looked like it started in scattered places,” said Boulos, owner of the town deli, Country Junction Deli.īoulos was not fazed by the news of a possible serial arsonist, since Valley Center, a town of about 7,300, is prone to fires anyway.

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