Man Who Once Worked as Inmate Firefighter Admits Starting Deadly Northern California Gann Fire

Herbert Wayne Smith, 65, has admitted he sparked the Gann Fire in Northern California, a blaze that has burned thousands of acres and killed a longtime animal breeder, according to KCRA.

Smith told the outlet he was using a saw to cut metal scraps for scrap money to pay for his wife's birthday celebration when the tool threw sparks into dry vegetation. He said he had no intention of causing harm.

"This is going to destroy my life, one way or another," Smith said in the KCRA interview. "I'm so sorry for everything that's happened. That was never my intent. I was just out there trying to get some money together, and it turned into this."

Authorities booked Smith on charges of recklessly causing a fire, operating spark-producing equipment in vegetation without following fire-prevention rules, and allowing a fire to escape control, according to KCRA. Investigators say he failed to clear flammable brush around the work site and didn't have firefighting tools on hand, standard precautions required before running equipment capable of throwing sparks during fire season.

The fire killed Susan Solari, owner of Hinterland German Shepherds, who had run the breeding operation for decades. Friends told KCRA that Solari refused to evacuate as flames closed in because she would not leave her dogs behind.

A firefighter's past collides with a fatal fire

More than two decades before allegedly setting a fire that killed someone, Smith spent time fighting fires himself as a state inmate. Smith entered California's Conservation Camp Program in 1999 while incarcerated, first at a facility in Soledad and later at a camp in Georgetown, KCRA reported. At the time he was serving a sentence for receiving stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.

California's inmate firefighter program assigns minimum-custody prisoners, those with eight years or less remaining on their sentences, to support state, local and federal agencies responding to wildfires, floods and other disasters, according to the state's corrections department. It is one of the ways California has stretched thin firefighting resources across a state that burns every year.

Smith was released on parole after his camp assignments. KCRA reported that roughly eight years ago he was also accused of starting a fire on someone else's property, though the outlet did not detail the outcome of that earlier incident.

What happens next

Smith faces pending criminal charges tied to the Gann Fire. No trial date or plea has been reported. The reckless-fire and equipment-violation charges stem from California's fire-prevention statutes, which require anyone operating spark-generating tools, saws, grinders, or welding equipment in wildland areas to clear vegetation around the work site and keep firefighting tools like shovels and water on hand during declared fire season.

Those requirements exist because California's dry brush and wind patterns turn small sparks into fast-moving fires within minutes. Investigators' allegation that Smith lacked both a cleared work area and basic firefighting tools determines whether his conduct crossed from accident into criminal recklessness under state law.

Solari's death adds to a familiar and grim pattern in California wildfire seasons: people who refuse to leave pets or livestock behind, and pay for it with their lives. Her decades running Hinterland German Shepherds made her a known figure in the local breeding community, according to KCRA's reporting on friends' accounts.

No timeline has been released for when the Gann Fire will be fully contained, and the total acreage burned continues to be assessed by state fire officials. Smith's felony exposure will likely hinge on whether prosecutors can show his failure to follow fire-prevention rules, rather than the spark itself, was the reckless act that caused Solari's death.