Authorities detail how Bidwell Mansion was set ablaze — and what led to arson suspect’s arrest
Video footage captured from throughout Chico and Oroville paired with weeks of investigation led detectives to identify and arrest a man suspected of intentionally setting fire to Bidwell Mansion, the historic landmark whose destruction has left Chico shocked and puzzled.
Prosecutors have charged Kevin Alexander Carlson, a 30-year-old from Chico, with felony arson paired with an additional enhancement for allegedly using an accelerant to start the Dec. 11 fire.
Carlson appeared Monday afternoon in court for the first time after his arrest, wearing a green shirt and thin-framed glasses. During his brief appearance, he asked for time to hire his own lawyer, rather than a public defender.
Butte Superior Court Judge Corie J. Caraway assigned a public defender to Carlson and told him he could continue looking for private counsel. Carlson did not enter a plea to the felony charge that, with its enhancement, carries a sentence of up to 11 years.
He’s now scheduled to return to court at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and remains held without bond in Butte County Jail.
Tracking down the suspect
Investigators, who believe Carlson acted alone, used video from a combination of homes, businesses, Chico State’s campus and government agencies — including license plate readers — to piece together a timeline of Carlson’s alleged movements the morning of the fire and the hours before prosecutors say he started it.
A week after the fire, officials said they did not have a suspect. But, not long after, investigators identified Carlson as the owner of a silver Toyota Highlander they had tracked coming and going from the Bidwell Mansion before it sparked.
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office Communication Center in Chico received the report of the fire at 3:16 a.m. after a Chico State police dispatcher smelled smoke, found the fire on campus surveillance cameras and called it in, said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey at a news conference Monday.
The fire began toward the back of the mansion — which, because of a natural cooling design built to move air through the estate, may have fueled the fire. Investigators believe Carlson broke a window on the ground floor of the mansion around 2:05 a.m. and poured gasoline inside. Video from a minute later showed two quick flashes and caught the sound of an explosion as the fire visibly grew throughout the mansion.
Ramsey said a Molotov cocktail may have been used, but that it’s “still being ferreted out.”
Fire alarms within the mansion, which had been under renovation and surrounded by a chain-link fence, did not sound as the fire burned about an hour before being reported.
“It is yet to be determined why the fire alarm system did not work in the Bidwell Mansion,” Ramsey said. “That is something that will be a side investigation to this investigation. But it has become increasingly clear that it did not work.”
The Toyota SUV, later identified as belonging to Carlson, was seen parking on a street near the mansion before the fire, prosecutors allege. A person walking to and from the direction of the mansion was seen on footage from neighborhood homes with what appeared to be a red object in a black plastic bag.
Despite the suspect’s efforts to remove his vehicle’s plates for a time, Ramsey said, the search of thousands of videos helped to identify the SUV because of the distinct outage of its third brake light and another broken back light.
Investigators eventually matched the vehicle to Carlson and found more footage from homes near his apartment complex that showed the SUV driving by the mansion before and after the fire was set, leading to surveillance of him that continued until his arrest by Chico police on Jan. 2 outside of a restaurant.
‘Everyone wants to know why’
More video showed Carlson park outside of and walk around the mansion the afternoon before the fire was set. That same afternoon, surveillance cameras throughout Oroville showed Carlson buy several items believed to have been used to set the fire, each from a different store, including a red gasoline can, black garbage bags, gasoline and a lighter, Ramsey said.
When Carlson was arrested, officers found a bag in his vehicle that appeared to match the one seen in footage the night of the fire. The bag had a hammer, duct tape, gloves and a lighter, Ramsey said. They did not find the red 5-gallon gas canister.
“Certainly everyone wants to know why,” Ramsey said. “Why would someone do this? Why would someone attack the Bidwell Mansion?”
Ramsey said that “very left-wing” TikTok channels followed by Carlson, who grew up in Paradise and graduated from Chico State with a mathematics degree, indicated an “anti-colonial bent” that may have informed his motive, which remains unclear.
After allegedly setting the fire and returning to his apartment in Chico, Carlson left his apartment again, Ramsey said, this time to a local 7-Eleven fewer than three miles from the mansion, where a camera inside the store showed him buying a gallon of water while the fire burned across town.
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 6:36 PM.
