Margaret Pavese, the woman who authorities said ignited the
47,000-acre Lick Fire last year, will appear in court Dec. 18, but
the outcome of her preliminary conference remains unclear as her
insurance company continues to figure out how much it will pay
three property owners whose homes burned down during the
disaster.
Margaret Pavese, the woman who authorities said ignited the 47,000-acre Lick Fire last year, will appear in court Dec. 18, but the outcome of her preliminary conference remains unclear as her insurance company continues to figure out how much it will pay three property owners whose homes burned down during the disaster.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s been some a setback with the insurance company, but at some point there needs to be closure,” Deputy District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson said Monday in regard to Pavese’s pretrial conference.
State officials did not bill Pavese, a San Juan Bautista teacher, for the $13 million it cost to extinguish the fire, but the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office did charge her with a misdemeanor – improper use of incinerator – related to the illegal trash burn she started on her property east of Morgan Hill. In addition, three property owners are seeking civil restitutions between $550,000 to $750,000 for their destroyed properties, a process which she said is holding up the criminal case.
Dr. Daniel Straus, professor of chemistry at San Jose State University, is one of the three plaintiffs suing Pavese in civil court. He declined to comment, and his San Jose-based lawyer, Ronald Rossi, and his associates could not be reached for comment, but court records indicate their cases are moving forward.
As far as suits regarding fires are concerned, though, officials said the slow pace of Pavese’s case is not unusual.
About 25 percent of last year’s fires remain unsolved, and while lightning kindled less than 2 percent of the wildfires throughout 2006 and 2007, according to state records, authorities reported a lightning-happy June in northern and central California as bolts touched off at least 2,000 fires. Thes include the Whitehurst and Hummingbird fires west of Gilroy and Morgan Hill earlier this year. Those blazes consumed more than 1,000 acres and sent dozens of Gilroy residents into panic.
As for the Summit wildfire, which scorched more than 4,200 acres and 35 homes, the DA’s office continues to investigate its cause. The May 22 inferno destroyed dozens of outbuildings and more than 100 cars during a week-long feast. Suppression costs totaled $16 million.
Investigators have reported that the fire sparked along Mount Madonna Road, where a brush clearing caught fire.
