Man arrested for sparking 450-acre fire

By Terry Murry on Sunday, June 27th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories

PENDLETON – The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office is charging a transient out of Enterprise with setting the fire that burned 450 acres in the Stage Gulch area of airport hill Saturday. Michael Dean Summers, 36, is charged with first-degree arson. He was arrested yesterday upon release from St. Anthony Hospital.

UCSO Lt. Sterrin Ward said that Pendleton police happened upon Summers in the area of the fire and found him to be making statements that suggested he had started the blaze. He was transported to the hospital, and PPD notified the arson investigator for the county.

He was taken to jail at 5:15 p.m. Saturday. His preliminary bail is set at $250,000.

“He was saying things like God told him to set the fire and that he was sending smoke signals,” Ward said.