A 19-year-old man arrested for allegedly setting patches of vegetation ablaze in Escondido last week will not face charges.
At a hearing Tuesday morning for Isaiah David Silva at San Diego Superior Court in Vista, prosecutors said they do not have enough evidence to bring charges.
Silva and a 17-year-old boy were arrested Thursday evening. A detention hearing was scheduled today for the 17-year-old in Juvenile Court.
A witness who allegedly spotted a pair setting a fire near South Escondido Boulevard called police about 6:30 p.m. Thursday and then extinguished the flames, police Lt. Neal Griffin said.
About an hour later, another person made an emergency call from an area near Westfield North County mall and said he was chasing two youths he saw trying to start a fire in Kit Carson Park near Interstate 15 and Bear Valley Parkway, according to Griffin.
The two suspects had similar descriptions to those from the first fire.
Officers went to that area and arrested Silva and the teenager from Escondido whose name was withheld because he is a minor.
Griffin said there was no immediate evidence linking the suspects to any of the large wildfires that have blackened about 20,000 acres and destroyed or damaged dozens of residences and businesses across the county. It was also not confirmed if they were suspected in a third fire that night that destroyed an Escondido church.
Prior to the hearing, Silva was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail pending arraignment.