Looking through several old newspaper clippings from an online data base, I happened upon a story from August 1958 about a couple of suspicious blazes in Crescent City, California. Unfortunately, the clipping fail to identify what paper the clipping are from or the exact date of the report.
“Sheriff’s deputies are investigating the possibility someone deliberately set fire to a large pile of stumps on Redwood Lane, the sparks from which ignited a barn filled with cattle and horses a short distance away. Fire Chief Lyle Griffin, whose men battled the blaze for five hours, said “the fire was definitely set.”
The first alarm was turned in by Mrs. Lloyd Noffinger, who first saw the stump fire near the drive-in at 1:30 p.m. One truck was dispatched to help extinguish the blaze, but more equipment had to be called out when Mrs. Noffinger reported C.L. Nichols’ barn ablaze more than one block away.
Griffin said firemen worked rapidly to lead the cattle and horses to safety and to halt the fire before it spread to bales of hay stored inside. Thousands of gallons of water were poured onto the burning stumps, which had been there for a number of years and were on the Huffman property on Redwood Lane.
Firemen finally returned from the blaze at 7 p.m. Griffin reported he checked the area again at 11 p.m. and that all seemed under control.”
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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