Shooting investigated

The San Bernardino Police Department is investigating the shooting of a man within a fire perimeter Tuesday night.

Police could not be reached early today. Reports about what happened were sketchy at the firefighting command post at Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead. U.S. Forest Service spokesman John Miller said the man might have been driving a truck filled with gas cans.

Meanwhile, Sgt. Jeff Newsome of the California Highway Patrol said officers had chased a suspected arsonist in the desert area Tuesday night. The man was arrested at Highway 173 and Arrowhead Lake Road. He was traveling by motorcycle, Newsome said, and several witnesses, as well as the crew of a CHP helicopter, allegedly spotted the man lighting fires in the desert area.

"It very easily could have caused another fire," Newsome said.

The CHP has stopped about 50 suspicious vehicles trying to enter the mountain communities of Lake Arrowhead, and concerns remain about looting. Several people have been arrested on charges of violating the dawn-to-dusk curfew in the mountains, Newsome said, and the area remains under mandatory evacuation.

-- Maeve Reston