Bernie Deyo, 27, of Valencia, was eating dinner at a friend’s Tuesday, when they saw smoke nearby in Neenach, and reported it to authorities.

Being a freelance fire photographer, Deyo and his friend, Jeff Zimmerman, 54 of Neenach, made it to the scene within five minutes and stumbled upon a man who appeared to have suffered some burns.

Photo courtesy Jeff Zimmerman.

“We immediately tried talking with him and he started talking gibberish,” Deyo, said. “We thought it’d be best until we left him alone until first-responders got there.”

The two friends then saw the man they thought was a burn victim wandered off and started lighting a fire,Deyo said.

Deyo quickly grabbed his phone and started documenting the suspected arson activity for around 10 minutes, until battery died on the app Periscope, which live streams videos.

“It’s such a remote area, and arson is such a hard crime to prove,” said Deyo. “I thought if I get video of this guy, they’ll know who they’re looking for and there’s documentation of the crime actually occurring.”

Deyo is a geoscience major at Boise State University.

Zimmerman stayed on the phone with authorities until they arrived to the scene, and helped paramedics try to subdue the suspect.

Photo courtesy Jeff Zimmerman.

David Artiaga, 27, answered to a pair of charges in San Fernando Thursday morning, arson of a forest and arson of property belonging to Southern California Edison.

The arson suspect was transported and booked at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s station, according to the station’s PIO officer Shirley Miller.

Artiaga is being held on $50,000 bail, according to the Sheriff’s Department website.

The information status regarding his plea is not available at the time this story was published.

Perry Smith contributed to this article.