A woman was arrested and charged with arson, after she admitted to starting a fire in a residential area of Julian, according to Cal Fire officials.
Flames burned approximately a quarter of an acre at Lakeview Drive and Chapin Drive at 11:30 a.m. under moderate Santa Ana conditions. Officials said there were no injuries and no damage to structures.
Two people told NBC 7 a neighbor was put in handcuffs after threatening to burn down homes while holding a lighter.
"She was pulled down from my road locked in the sheriff's arm and she turned around and looked at me," neighbor Delina Robair said. "And the sheriff heard her and said, with her cigarette and her lighter, and said 'I'm going to burn down every one of there [expletive] houses down."
The woman, known to residents as a tenant, was accused of taking a Cal Fire hat from one of the responding engines.
"The officer had walked up there and came down with a lady. I thought he was holding onto her arm to help her down, as if she'd been injured. She was covered in soot and soaking wet. Then I realized, he was holding onto her for bad reasons," said neighbor Kat Bowles.
The fire burned in a neighborhood between State Route 79 and State Route 78.
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Temperatures in the area were around 70 degrees with a relative humidity of 23 percent, according to NBC 7's Whitney Southwick.
The winds were recorded at 10 to 20 mph off and on – gusting as high as 25 mph. Southwick said winds should continue to die down.
Firefighters were able to knock down the fire in about 30 minutes. They were aided by women inmates, who reinforced the containment line, using chainsaws to cut down dead branches.
The woman was booked into the Los Colinas Detention & Reentry Facility.
No other information was immediately available.
