here's the whole story:
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11007265The Associated Press
Article Launched: 11/17/2008 03:37:14 PM PST
LOS ANGELES—A homeless man was sentenced Monday to 45 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $101 million in restitution for starting two fires, including a 2006 blaze that burned more than 163,000 acres in Los Padres National Forest.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank sentenced Steven Emory Butcher, 50, after he was convicted in February of starting the 2006 Day Fire by burning debris at his campsite as well as the smaller Ellis Fire in the same forest in 2002.
"I threw a cigarette butt or two on the pile," Butcher told the judge. "I tried everything to put it out. I'm afraid of fire."
The Day Fire raged for more than a month and cost more than $78 million to suppress. It injured 18 people, destroyed 11 structures and was the fifth-largest fire in California's history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Ellis Fire burned 70 acres.
"The fact that in 2006 he engaged in virtually the same conduct as in 2002 shows extreme recklessness," the judge said, pointing out the defendant suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, depression and alcoholism.
Prosecutors had recommended a 10-year prison sentence for Butcher.