SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Redding man will spend the next two and a half years behind bars after intentionally setting nearly a dozen fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to U.S. Attorney Philip A. Talbert.
Eric Michael Smith, 41, was also ordered to pay $19,071 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office official court documents, Smith set roughly 11 fires on national forest land between June 2019 and July 2020. Smith also admitted to abandoning at least 11 campfires during the same time period.
The district attorney says Smith used cigarette lighters and handheld torches to start the wildfires in remote locations of the forest. Many of the fires were started in the early morning, making detecting and firefighting more difficult.
One of the fires set by Smith in July 2020 forced first responders to close a portion of Interstate 5 near Turntable Bay Road to prevent the fire from reaching multiple vehicles and homes across the highway.
Smith was arrested in late July 2020 after an investigation where law enforcement agents installed a tracking device on his vehicles to monitor his movements.
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