A former firefighter who has been jailed twice for wildland arson was arraigned last week on charges related to detonation of explosive devices along California roads.
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Benjamin Cunha, 41, of Orangedale, was arrested Jan. 12 on suspicion of incidents in El Dorado and Sacramento counties. The 12 felony charges include unlawful possession or ignition of destructive devices, with alleged intent to cause property damage, injury, intimidation or terror.
Bail after his arrest was set at $2.1 million but the option has been revoked and he is being held without bail, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said.
Most of the incidents in the complaint took place in December 2023, with some as early as June, the Mountain Democrat newspaper reported. The sheriff’s office gave no further details of the incidents.
Cunha has been prosecuted twice for setting wildfires in California.
In 2008, he was sentenced in connection with fires started from 2005 to 2007 in El Dorado and Amador counties. He reportedly had confessed to starting at least 30 fires in that period, during which he was a volunteer firefighter for the Diamond Springs Fire Protection District in El Dorado County.
For that conviction, Cunha received a sentence of 365 days in jail under a program that allowed him to be released during the day to work, the news site Wildfire Today reported. His probation required GPS monitoring during the fire season; he was freed from that condition in summer 2012.
In summer 2013, Cunha was again suspected of setting arson fires in the El Dorado/Amador area. Investigators had noted the use of a time-delay incendiary device like one he had been known to use.
To get him behind bars quickly, prosecutors charged him for the 2007 Mine Fire, which he earlier had admitted setting. Under a 2016 plea deal that stipulated he wouldn’t be prosecuted for two 2013 fires, he was sentenced to five years in prison, Wildfire Today said.
In addition to his time with the Diamond Springs district, Cunha was a seasonal firefighter for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection from 2001 to 2003. He is from a family of firefighters, Wildfire Today said.
The current case was investigated by the FBI, the California Highway Patrol and the Sacramento County and El Dorado County sheriff’s offices.
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