Man accused of igniting fires in nature preserve bails out of jail

A 23-year-old man suspected of igniting five spot fires in a Riverside nature preserve was out of custody Monday after posting a $35,000 bond.

Andrew Gonzalo Chairez was arrested and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center Friday on suspicion of multiple allegations of arson to forest land. Chairez procured the required bail and was let out of the downtown Riverside jail Saturday afternoon.

The case was expected to be referred to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office for review.

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The non-injury arson fires were reported just before 7 a.m. Friday in the southeastern quarter of Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park, near Eastridge Avenue and Lance Drive, according to the Riverside Fire Department.

Battalion Chief Bruce Vanderhorst said six engine crews -- numbering almost two-dozen personnel -- were sent to the location and encountered flames burning in medium brush near the Ralphs Distribution warehouse that abuts the preserve.

Vanderhorst said crews counted a total of five spots ablaze and deployed into the brush using "two four-wheel-drive vehicles and a four-wheel- drive brush truck."

"Firefighters developed a plan using the patrols and brush truck to make access into the area to extinguish the fires without destroying natural habitat," he said.

While heading into the 1,500-acre park, which is state-owned but managed by the city, crews found an "adult male who admitted to starting the fires," according to the battalion chief.

A possible motive wasn't mentioned. Itinerants are known to frequent the area.

Vanderhorst said that arson investigators were summoned and took Chairez into custody without incident.

The fires altogether scorched a half-acre. The last one was completely extinguished at 11:45 a.m. Friday, Vanderhorst said.

Sycamore Canyon, which is wedged between housing developments in the Canyon Crest and Orangecrest neighborhoods, had not been hit by brush fires since the summer of 2019, when there were two that investigators suspected were the result of human activity, though no one was arrested.

Those fires, which occurred barely two months apart, consumed a total of 500 acres, leaving burn scars that did not entirely disappear until almost four years later.

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