The fire that singed half of Angel Island last week was sparked by people, according to the Examiner. Ruling out natural causes like downed electrical lines, machine malfunctions, or God almighty, the Marin County Fire Department are now investigating the person(s) who might have started the blaze. 29 campers were roughing it on Angel Island when the fire broke started. Also, one fire-related fatality was reported: a raccoon. RIP, little fella. (Examiner)......

Oh wow. You've got to check out some of these photos from the Crucible's 8th Annual Fire Arts Festival, which sparked up in fine fiery glory earlier this month. These shots were snapped up by getinet (Flickr). And the ones involving Bay Area Rapid Transit train are priceless. While the adult in us worries about the Bart train and its riders catching fire, the kid in us wants to see the thing catch fire and......

Mentally-estranged dreamboat Paul Addis -- you know, the guy who performed last year's premature ignition at Burning Man and most recently tried to burn down Courteney Cox-Arquette and David Arquette's chapel of love? -- pleaded guilty to (presumably) arson, winning himself a cool 12-48 month in federal prison. According to Curbed (via Twitter): Burning Man successful arsonist and Grace Cathedral would-be arsonist Paul Addis plead guilty in Federal court (to which counts, exactly, we......

Wow. We hope we're this feisty, and wildly insane, when we're sixty-four. It seems that sixty-four-years-young Diane Craig of Danville was arrested yesterday for attempting to burn down restrooms of an Arco station, a Chevron station, and... a Starbucks? Oh, and the best part: She used firelogs and lighter fluid to set the establishments ablaze. But is Craig another run-of-the-mill arsonist? Hell no. When the fuzz found her at a nearby fast food joint......

Just weeks after a mysteriously underreported fire set the top of AT&T Park ablaze, a one-alarm fire inside the San Francisco Giants Dugout Store at AT&T Park sparked late last night. Fire department sleuths haven't figured out yet just what started the fire, but merchandise like t-shirts, bobble heads, and teeny tiny bats were charred. Maybe the park has its very own arsonist? That would be exciting. At left: did not burn. Alas.......

Last night a little before midnight, Paul David Addis was arrested outside of Grace Cathedral, suspected of trying to burn down the historic church down. It seems that his neighbor called the police last night after overhearing him say something to the effect of "the cathedral wasn’t going to be there anymore." Yikes....

This morning the 18-year-old fire-starter was arrested for setting ablaze the Good Shepherd Convent, on 10/13. The front and back doors were set on fire during the early hours of 5 a.m. that day. But what makes this story particularly near-gruesome was the fact that six nuns were sleeping inside while he tried immolating the place. Fortunately, the half-dozen nuns escaped unharmed....

-- Behold! The Infinity apartment! [Curbed SF] -- Welcome Wikipedia to SF with a slew of wacky neighbors and a joint taped to their door, won't you? [Examiner] -- Missing cyclist, James Bronstein, found dead. [SFGate] -- BART wants you to save Darfur. [Civic Center Blog] -- UC Berkeley searching for a hooded man in connection with recent arson activity. [SFGate] -- The Gov signs into action a bill forbidding you to light up......

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Hey, someone spilled alcohol on our issue! Or at least we hope it's only alcohol.... We're now only gingerly turning the pages. Please don't be pee. Letters: Someone hates Chris Daly. You can't talk to MUNI head Nat Ford when he's in the john? (Cartoon at left.) Cover article: The Treasure Island Music Fest is gonna be awesome!!!!!!! (We have got to remember to pick up tickets for it......

During last night's total lunar eclipse in Black Rock City, Nevada, someone set the Burning Man figure ablaze prematurely. Chortle. Hey, maybe that was their art? Their statement? Their message? Or their coke pipe exploded? Still, not cool according to Black Rock City firefighters, eclipse fans, and festival organizers. Police swiftly arrested the arson suspect. No reports of any injuries, serious or otherwise. Except, of course, the apparently indescribable vibe on the Playa, which......

--We're up to 130 Galaxies now. [picture from the Fillmore Jazz Fest this weekend by megac0rp, from the SFist Flickr stream.] --Huge fire on University Avenue in Palo Alto; officials suspect arson. [Merc News, Palo Alto Daily News.] --A drag Loretta Lynn? Awesome! [Civic Center.] --Building housing over the main Caltrain station. [The Examiner.] --The return of the N-Judah to Mission Bay seems to have worked okay. [Chron, N Judah Chronicles.] --31 layoffs at......

The wildfire raging up near Lake Tahoe reminded us of our dear old cousin Mark. Mark Twain, that is, and what we remembered was his own brush with accidental arson up Tahoe way. It's a little-known fact, if "fact" be something that can safely ascribed to Twain's baroquely embellished reminiscences of his years out West, that he was solely responsible for a horrendous forest fire on the shores of Lake Tahoe. It was 1861,......

So as we were heading to the Opera Plaza movie theater for the SFIAAFF yesterday around 5:45 p.m., we noticed a huge number of helicopters overhead and wondered what was up. Turns out there was a huge fire on Page Street that started around 5:15 p.m.. One person jumped to escape the fire (no word on that person's condition), one firefighter had to jump onto the roof of the adjacent building to escape smoke, and......

Your mainstream release pick: The Namesake. The saga of a family that journeys from homeland India to wintry New York, Mira Nair’s newest film is based on the titular bestseller by Jhumpa Lahiri and features Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle), Jacinta Barrett and Indian singer/actress Tabu. It’s a beautiful and sensitive look at identity in the context of a cross-cultural family. Nair’s known for bringing insight to her subject matter and this movie appears to be no different...

More hijinks at the Lusty Lady, and this time, not union-related! A Cal football player has been suspended from the team after he got in a fight with a bouncer at the famed feminist strip club. Last weekend, the player allegedly entered into a video booth while his friend (whom the player called his "agent," even though the player's not currently represented) demanded they be given two prostitutes. When they were denied, Lusty Lady reps......

Special single-issue Blotter today -- there's a bad situation brewing in the Bay Point. On Wednesday afternoon, one of the owners of the store "Pop Ya Collar" was arrested for shooting a woman he suspected of shoplifting shoes. To be more specific, when the owner realized he'd been robbed by a group of five people, he grabbed his gun, ran outside, and fired shots into the window of the getaway car the group was driving......

-Three fires raged in Rockridge last night and police think it's all due to arson. What the hell is going on in Oakland these days? -Former HP head honcho, CEO Carly Fiorina, can't understand why she was fired and replaced by a bunch of people who just got indicted. We would imagine that would kind of hurt, but we're also pretty sure all the millions she got as a buy out would probably ease some of that pain. ...

Two suspects have been arrested in the Oakland convenience store vandalism case. According the Chronicle, two men have been taken into custody and four more warrants have been issued for other suspects. As anticipated, the suspects have ties to the controversial community leader Yusuf Bey. Also remaining under investigation is the kidnapping of Tony Hamdan, the owner of one two vandalized stores, shortly before its arson fire Monday. The suspects, Yusuf Bey IV (and......

Everyone's still talking about the tolltaker at the Golden Gate Bridge who was shot in a robbery attempt. (No, not just the $5 toll, an actual robbery attempt!) It's very cool that bridge security caught the shooter so quickly (within moments of the shooting). The tolltaker is recovering, and the tolljumper's been charged with robbery and attempted murder. A house in Burlingame continues to be targeted by a mentally disturbed man. The man in question had first spray-painted the phrase "Satanic Cult Here" on the house about nine months ago, and smashed up the homeowner's truck. When confronted by police, the man readily admitted to the acts, and accused the homeowner of "Satan worship, money laundering, and Al Qaeda ties." Yesterday, elderly neighbors observed two minor fires burning at the door and the side of the house, which they put out with a garden hose. The police suspect arson, and the homeowner and renters suspect the mentally disturbed man. And maybe just stick with getting cash back off the ATM card at Safeway for now -- a woman has been robbing those little bank branches inside local grocery stores around the Bay Area. ...

Bay area crime roundup...