The trucker spotted two fires along Interstate 15 through North County, roughly 3 miles apart, early on Jan. 21. He also saw a car stopped not far from the smaller fire and figured the motorist was calling 911.
But there was something about the way the motorist drove off that unnerved the trucker, he would later tell investigators, as outlined in an arrest affidavit. So he caught up to the car, noted its license plate and called 911.
That second blaze grew into the Lilac fire, which forced hundreds to flee their Bonsall-area homes in the middle of the night as high winds, low humidity and brittle brush created dangerous conditions and had the region on edge. Authorities said the fire damaged two structures, including a residence.
On Tuesday, the 48-year-old man authorities accused of setting those two fires pleaded not guilty in Vista Superior Court to charges of arson for the roughly 80-acre Lilac fire and the nearly 17-acre Pala fire.
At the end of a brief arraignment, Judge Valerie Summers ordered defendant Ruben Vasquez, of Madera, held in lieu of $500,000 bail. “These are extremely dangerous charges,” she said.
Deputy Public Defender Yuki Sekine had asked the judge to consider releasing Vasquez from jail on his own recognizance, noting he has family in San Diego and had worked as a Lyft driver in the region for the last eight months. She also said he has no criminal history.
Deputy District Attorney Daniel Gochnour sought the higher bail and argued the two fires were “set in the height of fire season” as high winds were about to peak.
“There’s an extreme danger to the community, given how easy it is to set a fire, and how hard it would be to prevent someone from setting fire,” Gochnour said.
The prosecutor also argued that Vasquez — who faces up to 12 years, four months in prison if convicted — is a potential flight risk.
An affidavit filed by a Cal Fire investigator late last month in support of a warrant to arrest Vasquez lays out some of the evidence — including witnesses and cellphone data — that helped lead investigators to a suspect. Gochnour also laid out some of the evidence during the arraignment.
About 12:10 a.m. on Jan. 21, a woman reported a fire just west of the freeway about a mile north of state Route 76, the affidavit reads. She told authorities about a black sedan parked so close to it that she thought it might burn. That fire would be named the Pala fire.
About a half-hour later, the trucker called 911 about the second fire, roughly 3 miles to the south of the first, near SR-76. The license plate he provided was linked to a Nissan Altima.
According to the affidavit, data from cellphone towers placed a phone linked with Vasquez at the site of both fires around the time they were reported.
GPS data provided by Lyft to fire investigators shows the car was stopped on the side of the freeway near the site of the Pala fire for four minutes before the first 911 call came in, the affidavit said. The data also put the car along the freeway near the Lilac fire for seven minutes before the first 911 call on that fire.
Customs and Border Protection officials told investigators that the car had entered Mexico about 15 times, including the day after the fire, and each time it re-entered the United States, Vasquez’s driver’s license was presented.
Vasquez was arrested Friday. Gochnour said he was taken into custody as he re-entered the United States from Mexico.
