HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE — Lake County Sheriff”s deputies arrested a 17-year-old boy after he reportedly set fire to his mother”s home on Deer Hill Road in Hidden Valley Lake.
On Tuesday at approximately 8:10 a.m., Sheriff”s Dispatch received a 9-1-1 call from a Hidden Valley Lake woman reporting that her son was breaking things inside the house and that he had tried to set a bathroom on fire.
As deputies were responding to the home, the woman further reported that the boy spread lighter fluid throughout the house.
Several minutes after the woman reported her son had left the home on foot, a fire erupted inside the house. CAL FIRE was dispatched to the Deer Hill Road home and when deputies arrived at the scene, the home was fully-engulfed and firefighters were engaged in battling the blaze.
Based on the woman”s information that her son might be heading to his step-father”s home on Horseshoe Drive, deputies quickly searched the area and located the boy in front of the step-father”s home. As deputies approached the boy, he retrieved a large rock from the front yard and threw it through the front window of his step-father”s home. The boy was detained without further incident.
The woman told deputies that earlier in the morning that her son had just finished taking a shower when she heard a loud noise in the bathroom. When she asked the boy if he was alright, he told her he had broken a shelf and then went into the garage, presumably to get something to fix the shelf.
When he returned from the garage, he had a bottle of lighter fluid and began spreading the fluid throughout the house. When the woman took the lighter fluid away from the boy, he began breaking items in the home. While the woman called 9-1-1 for help, the boy reportedly went into her bedroom, spread toilet paper throughout the room, and started the fire before running from the home.
Deputies transported the juvenile to the St. Helena Clearlake hospital for a medical and mental health clearance. He was then taken to the Lake County Juvenile Hall and booked on several arson related charges.
A team of arson investigators from CAL FIRE are conducting an investigation to confirm the cause and origin of the fire.
