In this fire vehicle, a couple from Oregon tried to enter the Palisades fire area.The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department
Ormseth, Matthew
Tribune News Service via the Los Angeles Times
On Saturday morning, the fire truck arrived at a checkpoint close to where rescuers were searching through the Palisades fire’s debris.
A law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation told The Los Angeles Times that the motorist identified himself as a volunteer firefighter to the National Guard soldiers stationed at the perimeter.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous and was not permitted to speak to the media, stated that they had little reason to think differently. The man was driving a full-size red fire engine with emergency lights, California license plates, and an American flag attached. He was dressed in a yellow firefighter uniform.
However, according to the official, a firefighter at the checkpoint spotted something strange about the truck’s stickers, which had the Roaring River Fire Department’s symbols. He instructed the sheriff’s deputies in Los Angeles County to look up the man’s identification.
The individual produced a driver’s license from Oregon bearing Dustin Nehl’s name, the law enforcement official said. Nehl was found to have served five years in prison for arson after a search of his criminal past, the official added.
Nehl admitted in 2017 to starting a slew of fires at a golf club, a park, and a water plant in Woodburn, Oregon, a city located roughly 30 miles south of Portland, according to KATU, a Portland television station.
According to officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Nehl, 31, and his companion, Jennifer Nehl, 44, were taken into custody on suspicion of posing as firemen and entering an evacuation zone without authorization on Sunday. On Tuesday, sheriff’s authorities said they will request that the couple be charged by the district attorney’s office in Los Angeles County.
Dustin Nehl is not the first individual to be charged with posing as emergency officials in order to enter an evacuation area. A burglary suspect disguised as a firefighter was apprehended by Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell’s officers last week in the Palisades fire zone.
Prosecutors announced that Ivan Cedric Reed, 34, was charged with receiving stolen property, impersonating a firefighter, unlawfully using a badge, and unauthorized entry into a closed disaster area after police discovered him on Clifftop Way in Malibu on Tuesday night while he was carrying a radio and wearing a yellow firefighter’s uniform.
According to McDonnell, there are people who will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.
Although the source with knowledge of Nehl’s arrest stated that deputies discovered tools in his fire truck that burglars could use, Nehl has not been charged with stealing from vacant houses in the Pacific Palisades region. According to the official, they also confiscated radios set to frequencies used by the county and city fire departments, as well as a map displaying burn regions.
According to the source, the truck was decommissioned approximately 30 years ago and put up for auction after being operated by a fire department in Northern California.
Although it was unclear how long Nehl had been in Los Angeles, the official claimed that he had lied about being a firefighter in order to receive free accommodation at the Holiday Inn Express in the area.
— The Los Angeles Times/Tribune Media Services
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