Suspected Arsonist in Custody

As US firefighters battle to bring a series of wildfires under control, currently raging across several western states, investigations were already under way to find the culprit.

Police today arrested former pop singer Billy Joel, aged 59, and several members of his band in connection with a series of arson attacks which has destroyed nearly 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) of chaparral, pine and grasslands in Los Padres National Forest.

Joel denies all charges and told his lawyer 'we didn't start the fire.'

In his defence Joel claimed the fires were burning for thousands of years and started before he was born and even suggested that other people were involved.

Police have officially dismissed these claims but are making tentative enquiries into the whereabouts of a man of oriental extraction called Mao.