Fifth firefighter dies of burns

Hours after firefighter Pablo Cerda on Tuesday became the fifth and final member of a U.S. Forest Service crew to die after they were overrun by an out-of-control wildfire near Palm Springs, authorities said they arrested a suspect in connection with previous blazes in the San Gorgonio Pass area, and named him a "person of interest" in last week's deadly fire.

Cerda, 23, fought to survive for six days at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton before succumbing at 5:08 p.m. to burns over 90% of his body. He lived in Fountain Valley, where he cared for his father, and was in his second season with the Forest Service.

"Today more sadness is added to our almost unbearable grief in the hearts of the Forest Service and all the fire service community," Jeanne Wade-Evans, San Bernardino National Forest supervisor, said Tuesday night.

Investigators continued working with more than 300 tips called in to an arson hotline since the fire began early Thursday.

Authorities said they had questioned several people about the cause of the deadly Riverside County wildfire, known as the Esperanza fire, and that they had identified at least "two persons of interest."

Authorities disclosed the name of only one: Raymond Lee Oyler, 37, a Beaumont resident, who was arrested at 3 p.m. Tuesday by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department on two counts of arson in connection with wildfires in June in the San Gorgonio Pass area.

In a terse news release issued Tuesday night, sheriff's officials said they interviewed Oyler on Friday and served a search warrant on his home Monday.

A sheriff's spokesman said no other information would be released Tuesday.

Although authorities didn't indicate which fires Oyler was charged with setting, Riverside and San Bernardino counties were hit with a rash of more than 40 small, suspicious fires in May and the first half of June. One such fire in mid-June broke out in Cabazon, burning 10 acres near the intersection of Esperanza Avenue and Broadway, not far from the Esperanza blaze.

Oyler could not be reached for comment.

The current, wind-fed Esperanza wildfire raced through the dry foothills, killing five firefighters and charring more than 40,000 acres at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains before being contained Monday. The blaze destroyed 34 homes.

A Cabazon man who lives a quarter-mile from where the fire began told The Times on Tuesday that authorities had questioned him, but that he was "100% innocent."