Sheriff’s office: Photo from Hopkins fire in Mendocino County shows arson suspect watching flames

A photo taken moments after the Hopkins fire ignited on Sunday in Calpella shows the 20-year-old man suspected of starting the blaze watching the flames, a Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said.

The image, captured the day the fire started, was taken by local photographer Peter Armstrong as the suspect stood on the Moore Street bridge, which crosses a dried-up section of the Russian River.

Devin Lamar Johnson, who was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of intentionally starting the fire, is shown in the photo, said Capt. Greg Van Patten, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman. He is standing on the bridge, facing away from the camera.

Wearing gray sweatpants and a dark, hooded sweatshirt, he looks toward the fire as a cloud of black smoke rises.

The fire, which started at the end of Hopkins Street, destroyed 30 homes and 16 other structures in Calpella, an unincorporated town about 6 miles north of Ukiah. It was reported around 2 p.m. on Sunday and firefighters stopped its spread within several hours.

It burned 257 acres and was 96% contained on Thursday, Cal Fire said, adding that all evacuation orders and warnings have been lifted.

The photo “was brought to our attention once the fire investigators were able to identify Mr. Johnson as a suspect,” Van Patten said.

Johnson is charged with one count of aggravated arson and one count of causing a fire that causes great bodily harm, according to a criminal complaint filed in Mendocino County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Prosecutors have requested bail be set at $2 million.

Authorities linked Johnson to the fire after he was captured on surveillance footage from a trucking business on Hopkins Street at the time the fire started, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

He was booked into Mendocino County Jail, where he was initially held without bail, on suspicion of aggravated arson, arson of an inhabited structure and arson during a state of emergency, in addition to violating probation.

No injuries were reported in the fire.

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Pera at matthew.pera@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Matt__Pera.