An Oregon woman held an alleged arsonist at gunpoint until police arrived at the scene after the man claimed he was going to start a fire on her property.
In the footage shared on Kat Cast's Facebook page, Cast is seen driving up to the man as someone in her vehicle films the incident.
Cast gets out the vehicle holding a handgun, walks over to the man, who has not been identified, and orders him to get on the ground.
'What are you doing on my property?' Cast asks. 'Did you light anything on fire?'
The man then responds that he was 'just passing through'.
According to Cast, the man had threatened to start a fire on her property, prompting her to make sure he was arrested. Wildfires across California, Washington state and Oregon have killed at least 36 people. All three states are already suffering from hazardous air quality conditions.
In the footage shared on Kat Cast's Facebook page, Cast is seen driving up to the man as someone in her vehicle films her. Cast gets out the vehicle holding a handgun, walks over to the man, who has not been identified, and orders him to get on the ground.
'What are you doing on my property?' Cast asks. 'Did you light anything on fire?' The man (pictured) then responds that he was 'just passing through'
Cast says in the video that the man didn't have cigarettes on him. She then told the man that she had called local police (pictured). According to Cast, the incident occurred over the weekend after the man threatened to start a fire on her property
She then asked him why he had matches in his hands to which he responded: 'I smoke.'
Cast says in the video that the man didn't have cigarettes on him. She then told the man that she had called local police. According to Cast, the incident occurred over the weekend after the man threatened to start a fire on her property.
In a Facebook post, Cast revealed that people had sent her messages claiming that she faked the whole incident.
'I read all your messages to me, even the private ones, I can tell you that this truly did happen and there is nothing fake about it.
'I do not wish to speak to anyone, it doesn't matter to me if it's a journalist who wants to put it out on the news, I will not put my family in danger by exposing myself any more than what I have already, besides the media will just twist my words.
In a Facebook post, Cast (pictured) said: 'If I need to do this again to protect my family and my neighbors, I will in a heartbeat do it again, except this time I will not be as nice as I was'
'If I need to do this again to protect my family and my neighbors, I will in a heartbeat do it again, except this time I will not be as nice as I was.'
Cast continued: 'Some of you still think we're not being attacked. I found this individual walking in my property as I was driving in, all he had were some matches in his hand.
'I walked him out of my property at gunpoint and then when we got to some asphalt ground on the main road [where I] made him lay down while the cops arrived.'
She said: 'Had my husband been here he would have been dead. This criminal has got multiple warrants, one of them [for] assaulting a police officer.'
It's unclear if local police have charged the man.
The incident comes as California, Oregon (pictured) and Washington state suffer from historic wildfires that have burned faster and farther than ever before
The fires have caused hazardous air quality conditions in Portland, Oregon, Seattle and San Francisco
The incident comes just days after a man was arrested Portland for allegedly using a Molotov cocktail to start a brush fire.
Domingo Lopez Jr, 45, was arrested on Sunday for allegedly starting the fire. He was released just hours before he is accused of starting six additional fires early Monday morning.
There are currently 87 large wildfires burning in 10 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Firefighters have battled hundreds of wildfires across the West Coast since the middle of August.
Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have burned over 4.5 million acres of land, an area about he size of the entire state of Connecticut.
Smoke from the latest spate of devastating fires has blown thousands of miles across the country covering the Midwest, Canada and even reaching as fair as New York.
At least 35 people have died - including 24 in California, 10 in Oregon and a child in Washington state - and more than 42,000 structures destroyed.
The fires have put harmful levels of smoke and soot into the region's air, painting skies with tones of orange and sepia even as local residents deal with another public health emergency in the coronavirus pandemic.
Cooler, moister weather and calmer winds over the weekend enabled firefighters to gain ground in efforts to outflank blazes that had burned largely unchecked last week.
Thunderstorms forecast for later in the week could bring much-needed rain but also more lightning.
As disaster teams scoured the ruins of dwellings engulfed by flames amid chaotic evacuations last week, Oregon's emergency management authorities said they had yet to account for 22 people reported missing in the fires.
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