Man Pleads Not Guilty to Setting Fire

Pasadena (myFOXla.com) - A transient pleaded not guilty today to setting a small blaze that broke out less than a week before -- and about six miles away from -- the massive Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest.

Babatunsin Olukunle, 25, was taken into custody last Thursday by deputies from the Lancaster station, three days after the Sheriff's Department held a news conference to announce that he'd been seen in the area of the Aug. 22 blaze dubbed the Lady Bug fire.

He is due back in Pasadena Superior Court on Nov. 19, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require him to stand trial on one felony count of unlawfully causing a fire of a structure or forest.

During their investigation of the Station Fire, detectives "received tips from the public that there was a male black transient that was seen for several months prior to the fire going up and down Angeles Crest Highway," Lt. Liam Gallagher said last week.

"Our investigators went out, and in talking to ... deputies who had come in contact with this individual, were able to identify him," he said. "At the same time, we received information that six days before the Station Fire, a very small fire at the Lady Bug turnout had been started."

Olukunle is a Nigerian national who arrived in the United States with his family in 1999, Gallagher said.

"He was student at UC Davis up until 2007," Gallagher said. "He came home from UC Davis on his summer break, and (was) sort of acting strangely, left the family, and they haven't seen him since."