A 19-year-old Goleta man was arrested Tuesday night on arson-related charges after a vegetation fire ignited in the 900 block of Farren Road near Winchester Canyon, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded at approximately 8:23 p.m. on May 19 to reports of a brush fire and received a description of a vehicle seen near the apparent origin of the blaze.
Arriving units located a vehicle leaving the area and detained the occupants. A subsequent search of the vehicle turned up a package containing three illegal fireworks, along with evidence indicating additional fireworks had previously been removed from the packaging, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Based on the investigation, deputies arrested 19-year-old Alex Karim Henin of Goleta on arson-related charges. He was booked into the Main Jail; formal booking charges and bail information are pending. Juveniles who were present were released to their parents.
The Sheriff’s Office cautioned that illegal fireworks pose a serious danger, especially in dry, brushy areas, and urged residents to avoid their use and to report suspicious activity.
Earlier in the evening, authorities closed Farren Road at Verda Del Padre and asked the public to avoid the area to allow first responders to work.
PulsePoint logs showed numerous fire resources on scene and continuing to respond. Watch Duty reported that an evacuation warning was requested for the neighborhood off and around Farren Road; however, the Sheriff’s Office had not issued evacuation notices.
By about 9:15 p.m., Watch Duty reported firefighters had a hose around the fire and stopped its forward progress.
Around midnight, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department confirmed the burn area was approximately one acre.
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The perpetrator is not an immigrant, but a graduate from an expensive faith based private school. MAGA clamors for parents to be thrown in jail when kids do something wrong (unless it is a wealthy white family).
Or unless the kids use the parent’s guns to go on a shooting spree. If they ride an ebike, arrest the parents! If they shoot off fireworks, violence is ok if they scared someone with PTSD (literally from Nextdoor), and then of course… arrest the parents! But, if kids use their parent’s guns to commit hate crimes (probably learned from parents), then it’s “insane” to blame the parents…..
Absolutely a terrible idea to ignite fireworks in an area filled with dry brush. Those shown in the photo are definitely some heavy-duty and very expensive shells/mortars. The warning label states, “Must Be Used In Launching Tube.” These were SERIOUS fireworks! No place around here is a good place to light these up, but….if you’re going to do that, best to do it on a beach toward the ocean.
BEES – you’re not wrong. There have been a lot of those types of fireworks out here in Goleta lately. I’m glad they finally caught the people doing it. Hopefully, they use this to set an example to others who keep doing this!
Overly simplistic and elementary analysis.
By BeeKnee
BumbleKnees is saying “Don’t shoot off dangerous or explosive fireworks, but when you do it, make sure its at the beach.”
Yeah, not the best advice, but the rest of the comment rings pretty true.
What part of “warning shoots flaming balls” did he not understand?
I truly hope this young man is made an example of to prevent others from doing the same stupid and extremely dangerous thing. There have been a lot of fireworks out in this part of Goleta lately so I wonder if it’s the same group of kids. As I understand, they’re from wealthy families so I do hope the DA insists on some restorative justice penalties as I doubt their lawyers will let them see the inside of a holding cell for more than a day, if that.
The juveniles involved are apparently well known troublemakers in the area who have done this before. Much like public artichoke harvesting, I do not wish to shame them in any way, but to all the parents of high school aged kids in Goleta, ask your kids about this and make sure they don’t hang out with kids that do reckless and possibly homicidal things like this.
Had there been a little wind like there is now, that fire could have easily spread down either side of the hill and decimated whole neighborhoods.
I hope the adult is fully prosecuted and the minors as well in the Juveniles system. Arson is not something we can take lightly in this part of town.