The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) arrested three people for starting three separate fires in San Diego County in January; they included a homeless person cooking outdoors and a man deliberately setting a car on fire.

Police announced on Monday that Joseph O’Conner, 66, Shinisha Smith, 31, and Ricardo Agraz, 47, were charged with causing fires in San Diego County in January.

The Center Fire in Rancho Bernardo, which started on Jan. 22 before 9 a.m. and burned 7 acres, was set by a homeless person who had been trying to cook food outdoors, police said.

SDPD Metro Arson Strike Team (MAST) Lieutenant William Brown told The Epoch Times that O’Conner appears to have been cooking outside when a propane tank he was using exploded, causing a blaze in the dry conditions.

“It just takes one fire and the wrong conditions in the wrong area, accidentally or deliberately started,” said Brown.

MAST requested that the district attorney charge O’Conner with unlawful or reckless fire to forest land, but O’Conner was not booked due to injuries he suffered as a result of the explosion.

“Unfortunately, the suspect in that one sustained some pretty good burns,” Brown said.

Nobody else was injured in the resulting fire, nor was there any major property damage. O’Conner can be charged under a section of the law covering reckless or negligent behavior that results in a fire.

“In some cases, even if it’s accidental, if there’s recklessness—when you should know better, you can face charges for arson,” Brown said. “So, in that one case, if the person hadn’t been burned, they would have already been facing charges, and they still might.”

Jerry Saenphansiri, 44, was arrested by MAST for intentionally setting a vehicle on fire.

“Sometimes you'll have people that, for one reason or another—whether they have mental health issues, or they’re just not thinking straight—will deliberately start a fire to try to get back at somebody else,” said Brown, who noted that Saenphansiri used an accelerant.

MAST arrested Agraz for his role in starting a fire on downtown San Diego’s 11th Avenue on Jan 15 and Smith for setting the nearby Mission Valley Fire on Jan. 23.

MAST had an unprecedented start to the year amid Santa Ana winds and dry conditions, resulting in multiple arrests for arson. The strike team responds when a fire causes fatal or serious injury, is spree-related, is a hate crime, is a high-profile event, exacts a high-dollar loss, or involves an explosive device. In such cases, MAST investigators work alongside fire department investigators.

Santa Ana conditions in early January led to MAST being called out multiple times each day in certain instances. Rains toward the end of January soaked San Diego and helped prevent a string of fires there.

Additionally, arson is suspected in the Friars Road Fire, a vegetation fire that broke out on Jan. 21. No suspects are in custody. The fire, which burned north of Fashion Valley in San Diego’s Mission Valley, caused an evacuation of the Humane Society and closed multiple roads.