Man accused of arson attempt at Shasta County store. Here’s scary scene deputies found

Shasta County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a man Friday afternoon after they say it appeared he was trying to set fire to a Rite Aid drug store.

About 3:58 p.m., a Rite Aid employee reported that a man — later identified as 34-year-old Shasta Lake resident Jason Franklin Sisk — was opening and “huffing an unknown aerosol-type substance” inside the store and refusing to leave, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release.

When deputies arrived, they said, Sisk was in possession of a beer bottle eventually determined to be an improvised Molotov cocktail and a partially emptied container of Tiki Torch fluid and a Bic lighter.

Deputies said they found several combustible aerosol cans bound together and doused in the flammable torch fuel in sections of the store. The torch fluid also was sprayed along the floor of three aisles and packages of diapers on a shelf, the release stated.

It was determined Sisk was wanted for questioning by Shasta Lake fire Investigators in connection with an Aug. 15 fire in the city, according to the Sheriff’s Office. An arson investigator from the city responded to assist deputies Friday, but no additional details about the Aug. 15 incident were provided.

Sisk was detained without incident, deputies said, and taken to the Shasta County Jail. He was booked on several felony charges, including suspicion of attempted arson of an occupied structure, possession of a destructive device in public and second-degree burglary.