On October 11, 1999, Forest Service mountain control coordinator Brian Thielst received a call: Someone had set fire to the historic cabin atop Madulce Peak. Thielst calmly got in the helicopter and headed up the mountain — he already knew who had done it. “All the fire guys were saying there’s a crazy nut down here, ranting and raving,” recalls Thielst. “I went down there and said, ‘I know who it is.’”
He was right. Thielst landed to find Dominick Cosmo Roppoccio standing alone, his backpack and clothing engulfed in the inferno. The longtime backcountry resident casually offered his hands, and the arrest was effortless.
The arson attained legendary status amid backcountry enthusiasts, who still share stories about a “wild man of the woods” that frightened and threatened hikers journeying into the San Rafael and Dick Smith wildlands. Yet Thielst and those who had closer encounters with Roppoccio remember him as a kind, hard-working man, one who was deeply disturbed from his service in Vietnam and wary of people. The burning was a final cry for help from a tormented mind.