Father, Son Accused of Starting Caldor Fire Plead Not Guilty

Dec. 10—PLACERVILLE, El Dorado County — The father and son accused of starting the massive Caldor Fire that left the tiny town of Grizzly Flats in ashes and threatened South Lake Tahoe pleaded not guilty to arson charges in El Dorado County Superior Court on Friday.

David Smith, 66, of Somerset and Travis "Shane" Smith, 32, of Folsom were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of reckless arson, meaning the men are not accused of intentionally sparking the fire but engaging in some form of careless behavior that caused the ignition.

Both men entered their pleas remotely from the El Dorado County Jail in Placerville, as a video of them sitting side by side in orange jail jumpsuits was displayed on a courtroom screen. They did not speak other than to verify the pleas entered by their attorneys.

Their Sacramento attorneys have said that the two men are innocent and had called 911 to report the start of the fire in a canyon near the Omo Ranch area in a rural corner of southwestern El Dorado County on Aug. 14. Investigators began focusing their attention on the Smiths shortly after the blaze began.

"My client and his son, the family, they all live in this community," said Linda Parisi, a Sacramento attorney representing David Smith. "They are completely innocent. They had no intention or involvement of any starting of a fire. This is their home."

Mark Reichel, an attorney representing Travis Smith, told The Chronicle on Thursday that the two men were simply "enjoying the forest like everyone else does" and had nothing to do with starting the fire. The men merely saw the flames and called 911, he said. Like the Smiths, Reichel appeared in the basement courtroom in Placerville on Friday via video.

The men also face felony weapons charges, according to court records: Travis Smith was charged with illegally converting a firearm into a machine gun and both men were charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm. It is not clear whether there is a relationship between the firearms and arson charges.

Parisi said she still knows nothing about the evidence or any motive the district attorney has in the case but has been promised information, possibly as soon as Friday

"I have no idea what the prosecution's theory is as to how the fire was started," she said.

The District Attorney's Office said it has evidence the men started the fire but hasn't disclosed it publicly. The men continue to be held on $1 million bail each, which will be reconsidered in a Monday court hearing in Placerville.

The Caldor Fire, which grew into the third-largest in California in 2021, destroyed about two-thirds of the more than 600 homes in Grizzly Flats and leveled a church, the post office, the school and even the fire station.

The fast-moving fire continued to move northeast, following Highway 50, burning through Sierra at Tahoe ski resort and the nearby Phillips housing tract and then spreading over Echo Summit and into the Tahoe Basin. South Lake Tahoe was evacuated, but firefighters contained the flames before they reached the lake and prevented them from destroying any houses in the basin.

A statement from the District Attorney's Office said that the reckless arson "caused inhabited properties to burn and resulted in great bodily injury to multiple victims."

The conflagration consumed 221,835 acres in El Dorado, Amador and Alpine counties; destroyed 1,003 buildings; and injured five people before it was fully contained 67 days later.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ctuan

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