Clues in the Ashes

By DAVID VAN BIEMA

The center of town had barely been saved; the remains of Sean Penn's $4 million home were not yet cool; 75-ft. flames were still roaring through the canyon when Ron Ablott's men hit the charred hills above Malibu. Crawling on their hands and knees, occasionally slipping a minuscule piece of ash into a plastic bag, they obviously belonged there. But unlike thousands of public employees battling the conflagration below, they were not concerned with fighting fires, at least not any burning currently. They were engaged in a manhunt.

From as early as the second day of the fires that have blackened 200,000 acres of Southern California and rendered thousands homeless, it was obvious that some were not accidental. Aside from one blaze caused by a vagrant's campfire and a few others sparked by fallen power lines or kids playing with matches, everything else was labeled suspicious. But it was not until the smoke, literally, cleared over last week's ruins that police released a shocking estimate. Of the fortnight's 26 major blazes, 20 are regarded as set by arsonists.

What causes a human being to light fire to the dwellings, hopes and dreams of his fellows? According to Ken Fineman, associate clinical professor of medical psychology at the University of California at Irvine, who advises the Orange County fire department, 60% of arsonists fall into a "curiosity" subgroup including children or teenagers. Of the remaining 40%, some burn down buildings in retaliation for what they perceive as injustice; others are sexually excited by fires and may travel with police-band radios to catch the latest action. Few, according to Fineman, want to harm people. Arsonists usually go out of their way to target unoccupied homes or areas. "But the fires we're seeing here -- wild-land fire setters -- are much more dangerous. It really is a separate category," says Fineman. "The fire setters are doing something with pure malice and intent."

"If I get no satisfaction by the time we get a real good volatile fire season you'll really regret it . . . They burned me now I'm going to burn back. I fight fire with fire. You like my puns chumps? Sizzle Sizzle. You think the Oakland fire was big. You should see my plan."

That letter, signed "Fedbuster" and mailed weeks ago to California public officials, was only the most spectacular of dozens of leads traded after the fires' first week by 30 law-enforcement representatives at the Los Angeles office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ( ATF). Ablott's team from the Los Angeles County sheriff's arson detail was there, as were police from other afflicted counties. So were FBI agents, whose Washington labs have the capacity to analyze the letter for everything from handwriting style to the DNA of the saliva used to seal the envelope.

Despite all the investigative talent, however, the mood was glum. Arson is a crime that erases its own evidence; a hundred leads may not make an arrest. Moreover, even if Fedbuster were caught and actually admitted to having set some of the fires, he could not have set them all.

Californians were unnerved and seeking a focus for their anger. More than one burned-out homeowner wished aloud that the arsonist had gone up with his handiwork. Governor Pete Wilson compared arsonists to child molesters, offered a $250,000 bounty and requested tougher sentencing. In Washington, as President Bill Clinton promised to help the damaged areas with their "extraordinary expenses," Senator Bob Dole introduced an amendment to the crime bill that would hit arsonists with 40-year jail terms and fines reaching millions of dollars.

However, you can sentence only those you catch. By the Malibu fire's third day, Ablott and his crew, analyzing burn and wind patterns, had located the fire's ground zero within 4 ft. and ascertained that its author had not used an accelerant, like gasoline. But their best lead -- several witnesses had seen two men in a blue pickup truck racing away from ground zero -- turned out to be a bust. By Thursday Ablott's team had interviewed the men, who could prove they not only had alerted neighbors to the fire's existence but had tried to extinguish it.

Federal investigators appeared to be on the verge of a major announcement this week, perhaps related to Fedbuster. Ablott was sifting through some 100 phone messages from the anonymous "We-Tip" hotline of the sheriff's department and was interested in interviewing a 22-year-old man arrested in Laguna Beach in possession of a police scanner, phony fire department IDs and a fire fighter's uniform. Meanwhile, three members of the Arson Profiler Program are quietly pulling 18-hour days at the ATF offices in L.A.'s World Trade Center. Founded in 1986, the program has dispatched staff members around the country to conduct Silence of the Lambs-style interviews with jailed arsonists in the hope of understanding motives and patterns. The profilers reread the Fedbuster letter, stare at maps and grease boards on the wall, monitor the news and try to brainstorm: if one person were responsible for more than one California fire, what kind of person would it be?

Not everyone thinks they will come up with much. "It's b-------," says an L.A. sheriff's department investigator. "This thing isn't going to be solved by profilers and computers. What's going to solve it is good old-fashioned police work."

But ATF special-agent-in-charge Jimmy Adamcik listens to the profilers, and he is concerned because they do not seem to be able to stay focused on the recent past. Instead, he says, they are fixated on the future. "They keep asking about the weather forecasts," he says, " . . . the wind forecasts." Adamcik sighs. He is hoping for rain.

With reporting by Elaine Lafferty/Los Angeles