A Mount Shasta City Fire Captain has been arrested on felony charges. Jason Vela was arrested by the Siskiyou County District Attorney’s Office Tuesday and was placed on unpaid administrative leave from the fire department pending an internal affairs investigation. Mount Shasta City Officials are only saying that the arrest stems from Vela’s tenure as Fire Chief for the City of Montague. Vela was forced from that position in 2024 amid accusations of embezzlement. The District Attorney’s Office had raided Vela’s home and seized computers. Vela had previously been praised for modernizing the department’s equipment, but fell into poor relations with the Assistant Fire Chief and Mayor Takeshi Murakami.
-Steve Gibson