Section 1551 | CALCRIM (Jury Instructions)

[An emergency worker includes an emergency medical technician. An
emergency medical technician is someone who holds a valid certificate
under the Health and Safety Code as an emergency medical technician.]
[Great bodily injury means significant or substantial physical injury. It is
an injury that is greater than minor or moderate harm.]
[A (structure/ [or] property) is inhabited if someone lives there and either
is present or has left but intends to return.]
[A (structure/ [or] property) is inhabited if someone used it as a dwelling
and left only because a natural or other disaster caused him or her to
leave.]
[A (structure/ [or] property) is not inhabited if the former residents have
moved out and do not intend to return, even if some personal property
remains inside.]
[A device designed to accelerate the fire means a piece of equipment or a
mechanism intended, or devised, to hasten or increase the fire’s
progress.]
[In order to prove that the defendant caused (great bodily injury to more
than one person/ [or] more than one structure to burn), the People must
prove that:
1. A reasonable person in the defendant’s position would have
foreseen that committing arson could begin a chain of events
likely to result in (great bodily injury to more than one person/
[or] the burning of more than one structure);
2. The commission of arson was a direct and substantial factor in
causing (great bodily injury to more than one person/ [or] the
burning of more than one structure);
AND
3. The (great bodily injury to more than one person/ [or the]
burning of more than one structure) would not have happened if
the defendant had not committed arson.]
[You must decide whether the People have proved this allegation for
each crime of arson and return a separate finding for each crime of
arson.]
The People have the burden of proving (this/each) allegation beyond a
reasonable doubt. If the People have not met this burden, you must find
that the allegation has not been proved.
New January 2006; Revised September 2020, March 2024
CALCRIM No. 1551
ARSON
1104

AUTHORITY
•
Enhancements. Pen. Code, §§ 451.1, 456(b).
•
“Device Designed to Accelerate Fire” Defined. People v. Johnson (2022) 86
Cal.App.5th 258, 266–267 [301 Cal.Rptr.3d 814]; People v. Kurtenbach (2012)
204 Cal.App.4th 1264, 1278–1280 [139 Cal.Rptr.3d 637]; People v. Andrade
(2000) 85 Cal.App.4th 579, 587 [102 Cal.Rptr.2d 254].
•
“Peace Officer” Defined. Pen. Code, § 830 et seq.
•
“Firefighter” Defined. Pen. Code, § 245.1.
•
“Emergency Medical Technician” Defined. Health & Saf. Code,
§§ 1797.80–1797.84.
•
Duty to Define Proximate Cause. See People v. Bland (2002) 28 Cal.4th 313,
334–335 [121 Cal.Rptr.2d 546, 48 P.3d 1107] [in context of firearm
enhancement].
RELATED ISSUES
Discretion to Strike Enhancement
The trial court retains discretion under Penal Code section 1385 to strike an arson
sentence enhancement. (People v. Wilson (2002) 95 Cal.App.4th 198, 203 [115
Cal.Rptr.2d 355] [enhancement for use of an accelerant under Pen.