David Spade calls on the public to keep “eyes open” to arsonists in the Los Angeles area, offering a cash reward to anyone who helps police arrest the fire-setters.
The actor took to Instagram over the weekend to announce that he would be donating US$5,000 (CA$7,200) to citizens who help police catch anyone who flashes. fires in California.
“I’m in California and people are saying there are guys lighting fires there, which just makes it worse,” he said in the video, taken from the front seat of his car.
“They just grabbed someone, we’re pretty sure he was starting fires while walking with a blowtorch, and they let him go.”
He continued, “So if you find someone starting a fire and you catch someone and you get the cops to arrest them and throw them in jail, I’ll give you $5,000.”
“But don’t pretend,” he warned. “No staging. Let me know.”
The incident he is referring to, Newsweek reports, may have been a case of a homeless man who was arrested in Woodland Hills on Jan. 8 for allegedly using a blowtorch to ignite trash and Christmas trees. It is suspected that his actions led to the ignition of the Kenneth Fire which broke out in the area.
According to the New York Post, the man is being held on a felony probation violation, but Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Dominic Choi said last week that there had been not enough evidence at the time to charge him with arson.
Experts told NBC News there was a good chance that at least some of the Fires ravage Los Angeles were started by humansalthough this does not mean that they were set intentionally.
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John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at the University of California, told the news outlet that examining data from the last 30 years of wildfires in Los Angeles County shows that the most common causes of wildfires in 1992 to 2020 were accidents related to vehicles and other equipment.
“More than 95 percent of these fires are started by humans,” he wrote in an email. “Arson is one of the causes, but most human-caused fires are unintentional. »
And while authorities are still determining the cause of all the fires that razed large areas of Los Angeles County last week, several celebrities have used their major social media platforms to amplify speculation that arsonists would be responsible for at least part of the fire activity. .
“THERE IS an arsonist here in Los Angeles,” actor Henry Winkler wrote on X on January 8, the day after the murder. Palisade fire begin.
Singer Chris Brown and actress Alison Sweeney, among others, also linked the fires to arsonistsreports the Post.
That said, dozens of celebrities and other big names in tech and sports have pledged to help fire victims.
Eva Longoria, reports Forbes, announced that she would match donations to the This is About Humanity organization, up to US$50,000 to help frontline workers and affected families. Additionally, she announced that she donate 1 million dollars from a $50 million award she received last year from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to support the recovery from a fire in Los Angeles.
Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation announced it is donating $2.5 million to help those who lost their homes in Altadena and Pasadena, as well as community organizations.
And Jamie Lee Curtis, who initially thought she lost her home in the fires, announced that she and her husband, Christopher Guest, would donate $1 million to help with forest fires.
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