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| Dustin Nehl Jennifer Nehl |
An Oregon couple was arrested Sunday for impersonating firefighters in the area burned by the Pacific Palisades near Los Angeles, California, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times, citing law enforcement sources, identified the couple as Dustin Nehl, 31, and Jennifer Nehl, 44. Mr. Nehl’s social media accounts say he lives in Woodburn, Oregon; Mrs. Nehl’s say she lives in Jefferson or Scio, Oregon.
The couple allegedly drove a full-size firetruck emblazoned with “Roaring River Fire” into the recently burned area, claiming they were volunteer firefighters. Police were contacted when someone noticed the fire truck, which had California plates, did not look quite right, according to the Times. There is no “Roaring River Fire” in Oregon
The Nehls combine a longstanding interest in fire, climate change and weather, according to media reports and the couples’ social media accounts.
Dustin Nehl was sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison and three years post-incarceration supervision for arson and possession of a destructive device related to damage caused in incidents from 2013 to 2016 to a country club and a water treatment facility in Woodburn, according to a contemporaneous report from The Woodburn Independent and The Oregonian.
His Facebook posts over the years mostly focus on heavy equipment and motor sports, with some posts critical of Joe Biden and one post from July 31, 2024, sharing a video from the “climate.united_we_can” account saying “High temperatures, wind and extreme dryness have triggered wildfires,” as fires raged throughout Oregon.
On July 4, 2021, Nehl posted a photo on Facebook with the caption “Tired of just watching it burn? Then give the forests back to the loggers and learn.”
Jennifer Nehl, formerly Jennifer Hastings, is an educator who focuses on teaching weather and climate to incarcerated youth, according to her Facebook and LinkedIn pages. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration highlighted Hastings in 2023 for helping her students create “weather raps,” “in which they discuss weather safety, process their concerns about climate change and environmental hazards, and explore the ways that underserved communities are more vulnerable to environmental hazards.”
According to law enforcement sources cited by the LA Times, the Nehls were apprehended with burglary tools. The couple have not been charged with burglary.
Maybe, just maybe, they were really there to help, but chances are they were up to something.
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