Cause of cabin fire fuels debate on Christopher Dorner standoff

“Fire doing quite well. I’m going to let it go,” a law enforcement officer also said, according to a Yahoo News reporter also monitoring the San Bernardino sheriff’s radio traffic.

A smart move, S.W.A.T. Magazine editor Denny Hansen told Yahoo News.

“You really can’t send firemen up there if the subject is still alive and may shoot them,” said Hansen, himself a former tactical officer. “They may have believed that he started the fire as a diversionary tactic to escape.”

Veteran police consultant Chuck Drago told Yahoo News that he interprets the officers’ discussion of “burners” to be the tear gas canisters that were used.

“They are not meant to cause fire, but they can,” he said. “Sometimes you have a lot of options at your disposal and sometimes you’re limited.”

With nightfall approaching and Dorner having already vowed to seek revenge by unleashing “unconventional and asymmetrical warfare,” Drago said the officers must have decided that a possible blaze was worth the risk to accomplish their mission.

“I think they had to move pretty quickly in this situation,” he said.

Hansen scoffs at anyone who thinks otherwise.

“I’ve already heard some people say, ‘Well, they burned him alive without a trial,’” Hansen said. “There are always going to be conspiracy theories.”