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ORANGE COUNTY, California (CNN) -- One of the larger fires in Southern California was deliberately started by someone with apparent knowledge of arson, a fire official said Thursday.The Santiago Fire in Orange County was started in two places along a little-traveled road, according to Chief Chip Prather of the county's fire authority.
The fire, which has burned more than 25,000 acres, was started in brush just off Santiago Canyon Road, not close to homes. It spread rapidly, indicating the arsonist had some knowledge of winds and other factors.
Catalino Pineda, 41, was arrested Wednesday, Officer Kate Lopez told CNN. Witnesses told police they saw him lighting a fire on a hillside in the West Hills area of San Fernando -- northwest of Los Angeles -- then walking away, Lopez said.Pineda was already on probation for "making excessive false emergency reports" to police at the time of the arrest, Lopez said...authorities want to find out if he had any role in the other wildfires.
In San Bernardino County, John Alfred Rund, 48, was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with setting a small fire along a rural roadside near Victorville.
The county's district attorney's office on Thursday also filed arson charges against Anthony Riperti, 47, of Redlands.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department also arrested an adult and a juvenile accused by an anonymous tipster of starting a fire in Vista in the northern part of the county. In a written statement, the sheriff's department identified the adult as Gorgonio Nava.