Aliens' pot farm blamed for La Brea blaze

Seems that's the new trend in California agriculture: Cultivate your pot farm, get busted, light the place up, flee, repeat.

And recently, that was blamed for the La Brea fire, which charred 90,000 acres in Santa Barbara County.

Don't know if it's my imagination, but nearly all of these grow-and-burn farmers are what they call "Mexican nationals," which usually means "we don't need no steenking papers." Or something.

From the L.A. Times:

... Investigators found 30,000 top-grade cannabis plants ranging in height
from 2 feet to 6 feet. Stacks of propane tanks, melted irrigation
tubing, empty fertilizer canisters, mounds of trash, a torched cooking
stove and a semiautomatic rifle were also found at the Los Padres
National Forest location, the sheriff and other agents said ... U.S. Forest Service fire investigators believe a propane-fed camp stove sparked the fire Aug. 8 ... "This is the trend," Russ Arthur, a special agent for the U.S. Forest
Service, said at a Santa Barbara news conference. "I've been involved
in hundreds of arrests and all of the suspects have been Mexican
nationals."

OK. In Southern California brush fires are a gigantic issue, especially with the arid climates, desert-type brush, and those dry Santa Ana winds. Brush fires are scary this time of year. And, any honest Californian will tell you it's getting harder and harder to like all those illegal aliens coming into the state.

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Photo:

Firefighters battling the La Brea fire prepare to leave the area as they make room for a bulldozer that will clear a fire line. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / August 16, 2009)