CORRALITOS — The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office has apprehended a 36-year-old man in connection with a series of fires that were ignited in the hills above Corralitos earlier this week.
Isaac Tayrien was booked in the county jail and charged with felony arson of an inhabited structure, felony arson of open land, stolen vehicle, vandalism of more than $400 and resisting arrest, Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Zach West told the Sentinel in statement Thursday.
Deputies with the local law enforcement agency accompanied Cal Fire’s CZU San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit as they responded around 5 p.m. Tuesday to reports of a structure fire off of Eureka Canyon Road. The first responders arrived and discovered a small outbuilding fully engulfed in flames and the fire had begun to spread into the wildland area.
Firefighters were able knock down the structure and extinguish the fire in quick order, but as they were doing so, a report came in about another structure fire further down the rural road.
Additional assistance and resources were immediately called in, including a helicopter, three total water tenders provided by Scotts Valley Fire and Central Fire districts, Santa Cruz County Fire Company 41, as well as a hand crew from Ben Lomond Conservation Camp and an extra engine from Cal Fire’s San Benito-Monterey Unit.
But after arriving at the scene of the second reported fire, crews discovered some brush and trees had been lit aflame instead of a reported structure. That fire was then quickly doused with water and brought under control. It was during that response that dispatchers received another call, this time to report a medical aid request for an individual near the site of the first fire. That individual was located and assessed at the scene, but did not require hospitalization, according to a social media post from Cal Fire.
Meanwhile, as crews soaked the second blaze, they spotted a third and final fire along a neighboring hillside. Both of these fires burned within steep terrain that complicated the response effort, yet were declared contained within two hours.
In all, the first fire was held to only 0.06 acres while the second and third combined for 0.27 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Prior to responding to the fire, sheriff’s deputies had been conducting an investigation for a stolen vehicle and vandalism incident in the same area, according to West. During the course of the fire investigation, he wrote, deputies and detectives identified Tayrien who attempted to flee before being taken into custody.
Sheriff’s Office detectives and Cal Fire’s arson unit continue to gather evidence and the investigation remains ongoing, West wrote.