David Spade is calling on the public to keep their “eyes peeled” for arsonists in the Los Angeles area, offering a cash reward to anyone who helps police catch individuals setting fires.
The actor took to Instagram over the weekend to announce he would hand over US$5,000 (C$7,200) to citizens who help police catch anyone lighting fires in California.
“I’m out in California and people are saying there’s guys lighting fires out there, make this s–t worse,” he said in the video, taken from the front seat of his car.
“They just caught somebody, we’re pretty sure that was lighting fires walking along with a blowtorch, and they let them go.”
He continued: “So, if you can find someone lighting a fire, and you catch somebody, and you get the cops to bust them and throw them in jail, I’ll give you 5,000 bucks.”
“Don’t fake it though,” he warned. “No staging. Let me know.”
The incident he references, reports Newsweek, is possibly the case of a homeless man who was arrested in Woodland Hills on Jan. 8 for allegedly using a blowtorch to ignite garbage and Christmas trees. There’s been suspicion whether his actions led to the ignition of the Kenneth Fire that started in the area.
According to the New York Post, the man is being held on a felony probation violation, but Los Angeles Police Department assistant Chief Dominic Choi said last week there was not enough evidence at the time to charge him for arson.
Experts told NBC News there’s a good chance at least some of the fires plaguing Los Angeles were started by humans, although that doesn’t mean they were intentionally set.
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John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at the University of California, told the outlet that when examining data from the last 30 years of wildfire occurrence in Los Angeles County, it shows that the most common causes of wildfires from 1992 to 2020 were mishaps related to vehicles and other equipment.
“More than 95 per cent of these are human-ignited fires,” he wrote in an email. “Arson is among the causes, but most human-caused fires are not intentional.”
And while officials are still determining that cause of all the fires that have razed large areas of Los Angeles County in the last week, several celebrities have used their large social media platforms to amplify speculation that arsonists are responsible for at least some of the fire activity.
“THERE IS an ARSONIST here in LA,” actor Henry Winkler wrote on X on Jan. 8, the day after the Palisades fire started.
Singer Chris Brown and actor Alison Sweeney, among others, have also tied the fires to arsonists, reports the Post.
That said, dozens of celebrities and other big names in tech and sports have pledged to help support victims of the fires.
Eva Longoria, reports Forbes, announced she will match donations to the organization, This is About Humanity, up to US$50,000 to help frontline workers and families impacted. Additionally, she announced she would give $1 million of a $50-million award she received from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos last year to support L.A. fire recovery.
Beyonce’s BeyGOOD Foundation announced it is making a $2.5-million donation to help those who have lost homes in Altadena and Pasadena, as well as community organizations.
And Jamie Lee Curtis, who originally thought she had lost her home in the fires, announced that she and her husband, Christopher Guest, would donate $1 million to wildfire relief.
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