Forest Service Arson Investigator Suspected of Setting Fires An arson investigator for the U.S. Forest Service may be responsible for dozens of suspicious fires in Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. Michael Karl McNeil is currently in jail for allegedly threatening public officials. An investigative report, written by a Forest Service special agent, says the former USFS fire technician was suspiciously near numerous arson-caused fires in the Beaumont area after he moved there. The report said McNeil had used matchstick starter devices similar to the one that triggered last year's Esperanza Fire, which killed five firefighters near Idyllwild. But McNeil is not charged in that case or any other arson. The USFS investigation says McNeil has a criminal record for making threats against co-workers in 1998, and is in a Los Angeles County jail on charges that include threatening several public officials, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs. The confidential report, written in July 2008, says McNeil "may possibly be associated" with at least four fires that match dates and circumstances of blazes that Oyler is charged with setting during 2006 in the San Gorgonio Pass, at the same time and place where Oyler is accused of setting fires. The report also says McNeil is possibly associated with as many as 20 fires near Beaumont, from May 16 to Oct. 22 2006....