Did Dorner start the fire from within or did the LAPD start the fire? This will probably be the debate.

would have been the san bernandino sheriff who made the decision as he is the head honcho in his county. Dont blame him if he did as two of his guys had just been shot and would expect my sheriff to do the same.

several other posts have discussed this, also.

It would either flush him out or kill him - his option. It's better than waiting around to see how many more cops have to die.

One man, no hostages, nowhere to go, in a mountain cabin.

Cut the electricity and he won't have any way to run a gas furnace or pump water (cabins generally aren't hooked up to city water and rely on an electric well pump and propane heating). No way to flush a toilet. He can't go outside to get firewood or snow for water for fear of being shot by a sniper.

Within a few days, the cabin would be frozen, he'd be out of water, and he'd either have to surrender or die in a hail of bullets. Theoretically he could try to play sniper and shoot at a few cops outside first, but you can bet they had multiple snipers of their own zeroed in on every window and door of that house.

It was a botched operation from start to finish.

The suspect was neutralized, with no more casualties to law enforcement. I take it you weren't outside that cabin wearing a target... I mean uniform.

stated that there are two kinds of tear gas cannisters: one of them just puts out the tear gas, the other one is also incendiary. sounds like LEO used the latter.