29‑year‑old under arson investigation allegedly sets new fire while fleeing in Cloverdale, + he was convicted of arson in 2025 in Mendocino County
Man arrested, accused of setting several fires in Cloverdale
A 29‑year‑old man with a long criminal record, including a 2025 arson conviction in Mendocino County, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly setting a series of small fires in Cloverdale. Luke Deramo was booked into Sonoma County jail with bail set at $1.1 million. He was also arrested for arson on New Year’s Eve 2024 and pleaded no contest six days later, on Jan. 5, 2025, to misdemeanor arson.
He already had several other convictions and had been held on $1 million bail in Sonoma County in 2017 after an assault with a deadly weapon charge, when he was 25 and also faced a potential enhancement under the three‑strikes law.
Tuesday’s events began when officers searching for Deramo on Geyser Road in connection with an arson case contacted a woman parked along the highway and asked her to be on the lookout. She called shortly afterward to report that a man matching Deramo’s description had climbed into the bed of her truck and refused to leave, then vandalized the vehicle with a rock as he fled. A short time later, another fire was reported in Cloverdale, and officers arrested Deramo about a mile south of that scene. He is also a suspect in a string of fires in the area.
The press release from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department
On May 19, 2026, at 9:00 a.m., deputies were conducting follow-up patrols in the Geyser Road area near the Mendocino County line to locate a suspect wanted in a previous arson investigation. The subject was identified as Luke Deramo, 29, transient.
While checking the area, a deputy contacted a woman parked along the roadway and advised her to contact law enforcement if she saw Deramo. Approximately 30 minutes later, the woman called 911 to report that Deramo had emerged from nearby brush, climbed into the bed of her truck, and refused to leave. He then vandalized her vehicle with a rock and fled back into the brush near the river.
A short time later, a vegetation fire was reported in the area where Deramo had last been seen. Fire personnel responded and began suppressing the fire while deputies and Cloverdale Police Department officers searched the surrounding area for Deramo. CAL FIRE Law Enforcement was contacted due to him being wanted for several other fires in the area.
Following a large-scale search, Deramo fled from deputies before ultimately being taken into custody approximately one mile south of the fire’s location.
Deramo was booked into the Sonoma County Jail by deputies and CAL FIRE Investigators on multiple felony arson-related charges. A bail enhancement was requested, and his bail was set at $1,121,000. He remains in custody.
Deramo had lived in Cloverdale, Sacramento and Los Altos in the past, but is currently listed as homeless and not having an address.
(END Press Release)
A press release can outline the charges and the chase, but it can’t answer the larger questions about how a person ends up in this cycle or what it means for the communities along the 101 corridor. MendocinoCoast.news’ signature reminder is that the story is always bigger than the paperwork. As more details emerge, we’ll keep following the case — because every fire, every arrest, and every neighborhood affected deserves more than the few official lines that first announce it. But arson is terrifying in Northern California. This case must be taken extra seriously by the court system. Repeat arsonists, if he is convicted, should not be given deals or lesser sentences than the law would dictate.
