PALM DESERT – (INT) – Arson investigators are playing it close to the vest on how a woman was linked to a weekend fire that destroyed a strip mall in Palm Desert.

Natalie Ann Radu was initially detained near the scene of Sunday’s 2-alarm fire that gutted the mall on Country Club Drive and destroyed four businesses.

In a statement Wednesday announcing her arrest, CalFire said the woman ‘recklessly caused’ the blaze.

Radu was incarcerated at the Smith Detention Center in Banning. She was described in some published reports as a transient.

Six residences near the blaze on Country Club Drive were evacuated.

CalFire says a sheriff’s deputy was taken to a local hospital for treatment of undisclosed injuries.

Story Date: April 22, 2024