Scooter Tracks Led to Arrest in Crystal Peak Fire

CRYSTAL PEAK — An electric scooter left on a dirt road led Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher uphill to the edge of a burning hillside in Dog Valley on Wednesday morning, and a set of barefoot prints leading away from the scooter led his deputies to the woman now charged with starting the fire. Sarah Ortstadt, 50, of Reno, Nevada, was arrested August 5 near Crystal Peak Mine on suspicion of unlawfully causing a fire on forest land, along with two drug charges.

Fisher said in an interview that the morning began with a phone call at about 6:30 AM from one of the county’s volunteer firefighters, who lives in the Cold Springs area. The firefighter had spotted a heat signature on the Watch Duty app before anything had been reported as a fire, and at first light he saw the smoke column from a spot where he happened to have a view of it. The firefighter immediately notified the Forest Service directly before getting in touch with the sheriff.

Sierra County Sheriff’s dispatch then requested a full response from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the forest the fire was burning in, as well as Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District. The Tahoe National Forest also assisted in firefighting efforts. Deputies staged at United States Highway 395 and Long Valley Road.

Fisher reached the fire ahead of most of the engines. On the dirt road, he found debris scattered about and an electric stand-on scooter, and he followed its tracks uphill to the fire’s edge. He says he then attempted to locate the point of origin and protect it before arriving personnel could disturb it. He walked the fire’s perimeter, but found no immediately obvious origin point.

The fire never got away from crews. There was no wind, and the ground it burned through had been treated. “I think it’s important to point out that the fire was in an area that had been recently logged and masticated,” Fisher said, referring to a fuels reduction treatment that grinds brush and small trees into chips. “The fire activity was really moderated. I mean, I was able to walk within two or three feet of the head of the fire,” he said. Forward progress was stopped at approximately 3.4 acres, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Later, Fisher went back down to the scooter, where he says he found barefoot prints leading away from it and what looked like fresh dog tracks. As a deputy drove up from the highway, he came across a woman with no shoes and a dog and stopped to speak with her. Fisher said the contact led to admissions that she had been in the area where the fire started and had left it. Deputies found a usable amount of methamphetamine, and Fisher says she showed objective signs of being under the influence of a controlled substance. She agreed to return to the burned area and point out where she had been camping.

Investigators finished their work and their interviews at the campsite, which Fisher said evidence pointed to as the origin of the fire. The Sheriff’s Office concluded that probable cause existed for an arrest under Penal Code section 452 for causing a fire, and that nothing indicated the fire had been set intentionally. Fisher instead described the fire’s ignition as a reckless or careless act. Forest Service investigators also examined the scene and will report findings to the Sheriff’s Office separately. Drug paraphernalia was found in the burned campsite, Fisher said.

Dog Valley sits in the Carson Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, which reaches from Nevada into eastern Sierra County. Stage 1 fire restrictions took effect across the district on Monday, June 29, and remain in place until rescinded, barring campfires and stove fires except by permit or inside a developed fee campground or picnic area. A separate Forest Service order bars camping, campfires, and overnight presence within a half mile of several access points in the Dog Valley and Peavine areas, including both ends of Dog Valley Road.

“452(c) is a felony charge,” Fisher said. He said the District Attorney can reduce it to a misdemeanor, but in his judgment, the current weather, the lack of moisture, and firefighting resources drawn down by other fires put the conduct at the felony level. Ortstadt was also booked on Health and Safety Code section 11550(a), being under the influence of a controlled substance, and Health and Safety Code section 11377(a), possession of methamphetamine.

Ortstadt was booked into Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City. She was arraigned Thursday, August 6, and held on $10,000 bail. Fisher said her next court appearance, expected next week, will set a preliminary hearing. “We’re ready to go to trial,” he said.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect that Ortstadt’s bail was set at $10,000, not $1,000.