2 Arrested On Suspicion Of Attempted Murder In Connection With Eagle Rock Fire

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Two 25-year-old men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with last week's 45-acre brush fire in the Eagle Rock area, authorities said Tuesday.

Bryan A. Araujocabrera, of Pacoima, and Daniel M. Noguiera, of Eagle Rock, were arrested around 7:30 p.m. Saturday for attempted murder in connection to the fire, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Records showed Nogueira posted $1 million bail and was released Sunday. Araujocabrera remained jailed in lieu of $1.116 million bail.

Authorities said they believed the fire was set in an attempt to kill a person or people at the homeless encampment under the 2 Freeway, although the intended target was not immediately clear.

According to LAPD, the case will be presented to the district attorney's office Wednesday.

The fire started just after 4 p.m. Aug. 25 in the 2900 block of Colorado Blvd., on a hillside near the Glendale Freeway. Within hours, it had grown to about 30 acres and led to the evacuation of about 100 homes in Glendale, fire officials said.

Lily McDonald was one of those evacuated residents, and said she was angry to hear of the arrests.

"It's senseless to me," she said. "Why would you want to do that, first of all, to the homeless people who are going through enough anyway? Then you put all these homeowners at risk. It's taken years of working hard to get your home, maintain it, and then for it just to go down in just a matter of minutes — it didn't — but if it had, a lot of us would've been impacted."

The 134 and 2 Freeways were shut in both directions while additional resources were called to aid in structure protection.

More than 200 firefighters battled the blaze. Three LAFD helicopters dropped water on the fire; at least six drops were witnessed. Air-Crane and LA County each had a helicopter dropping additional water on the flames.

"I don't know what their motives, I can't judge that," McDonald said. "Again, whatever happens, I'll let the system handle it."