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- Suspected Los Angeles arsonist run down by former college football player</p>
<p>David K. Li July 15, 2025 at 10:27 PM</p>
<p>A former college football player ran down a suspected arsonist, and Los Angeles firefighters tackled hillside flames before the burning brush could get out of control, officials said Tuesday.</p>
<p>One-time University of Kentucky wide receiver Scott Mitchell and girlfriend Davanh DiMarco were on their regular seven-mile hike Sunday when they came upon a burning tree and a suspicious man leaving the scene.</p>
<p>"'Oh wait, that tree's on fire!'" Mitchell recalled DiMarco telling him. "'Hey, that guy lit that tree on fire. He started that fire. Get him!'"</p>
<p>By this point, that man was about 150 yards down the road. And then all of a sudden, Mitchell found himself back on an SEC gridiron in the fall of 2004 or 2005.</p>
<p>"Even without digging, I was able to chase that guy down," Mitchell said. "I didn't know I still had it, I'm not going to lie."</p>
<p>The man told the couple he was a fire marshal and started the blaze as part of a controlled burn — a tale they didn't believe given his disheveled state.</p>
<p>"So I asked him, 'Where's your badge, fire marshal?'" said Mitchell, a talent manager. "And there was nobody else over there, so you can reasonably deduce that he set the fire."</p>
<p>Other hikers helped keep the man at bay and called 911.</p>
<p>Andrew Wistic O'Calliham, a 43-year-old homeless man, was arraigned Tuesday on suspicion of felony arson of a forest land, prosecutors said. A lawyer representing him could not be immediately reached for comment.</p>
<p>The suspect was being held in lieu of $75,000 bail.</p>
<p>Aerial personnel and about 53 firefighters on the ground "fully extinguished all active flames" along Runyon Canyon Road in the Hollywood Hills on Sunday afternoon, according to an LAFD statement.</p>
<p>Mitchell and DiMarco were evacuated during the devastating Eaton Fire earlier this year, so they're hyper-sensitive to smell or sight of any flames.</p>
<p>"Yeah we're grateful that it ended the way it did," said DiMarco, a fashion designer.</p>
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Source: "AOL General News"
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