CLEARLAKE >> Clearlake Police Department officers arrested a 19-year-old after he admitted to accidentally setting a building on fire near Emory Avenue and Lakeshore Drive on Monday according to information made public by law enforcement officials.
At 5:03 p.m. Monday, officers responded to a structure fire and upon arriving on the scene found an abandoned red-tagged building located at 14668 Lakeshore Drive on fire. A few minutes later crews from the Lake County Fire Protection District arrived and began work on extinguishing the fire and preventing the spread of a small grass fire to other properties.
Officer Daniel Eagle spoke with witnesses and obtained a description of a person seen leaving the building shortly before the fire. Based on the description, Eagle believed that person was 19-year-old Jason Olson Jr. A photographic lineup a short time later was shown to a witness who identified Olson as the person seen leaving the building.
Olson was spotted walking behind Safeway early Tuesday at 8:40 a.m.
Hobbes noted that during an interview Olson confessed to being at the location of the incident and admitted to starting the fire while smoking methamphetamine. He was arrested on suspicion of unlawfully causing a fire and later taken to the Lake County jail.
