In 2002 there was a huge wildfire in Colorado called the Hayman Fire, $40 million in damages, 133 homes burned, and forced evacuation of 5,340 people. It torched over 138,000 acres and burned across four different counties. It took more than a month to bring it under control.

There was one death caused by an asthma attack a woman had when dense smoke blew into her neighborhood and five fire fighters died in a traffic accident on the way to fight the fire.

A federal forestry officer, Terry Barton, who claimed she was attempting to burn a letter from her estranged husband, set the fire inside a campfire ring within an area designated for no fires due to a severe drought. It took quite a while for this to come out. It was also considered that she wanted attention by starting a fire, so she could be a hero for saving the forest.

Can you imagine how silly this letter story sounded after all the drama and destruction?

A federal grand jury indicted Barton on four felony counts of arson.
Barton ultimately pleaded guilty to the arson charge and was given a six year sentence in federal prison and she was also ordered to reimburse the federal government $14.6 million. The State of Colorado originally sentenced Barton to 12 years in prison to run concurrently with the 6-year federal sentence. However the state sentence was overturned on appeal on grounds that the presiding judge had "the appearance of prejudice" because smoke from the fire motivated him to voluntarily leave his home for one night. In March 2008, Barton was re-sentenced by a different judge to 15 years of probation.

My fondest memory of that fire was a large photograph of a fire survivor and his cat Twitchy that was on the front page of the Rocky Mountain News. The guy was holding Twitchy and wearing cut off shorts and apparently no underwear because we could see his little trouser worm peeking out of the leg hole. It was the talk of the Denver and everyone was trying to get a copy of the newspaper so they could have a good laugh. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Although the last week's fire west of Boulder only burned about 7000 acres, 166 homes were destroyed. Nobody died, fortunately. When I heard it was caused by a volunteer fireman, I thought of these people who start a fire so they can be the hero, but I don't think that was the case. He'd burned off some branches and doused the fire pit with water several days before, and then the wind came up and found some embers.

This other fire that is near me was started by a guy burning twigs and branches on his property. I don't know the details of what day he was doing the burning with respect to when the fire started. Nobody does these things on purpose. So far, 2 houses have been destroyed, some outbuildings, and a motor home with 900 acres burned.

In order for criminal charges to be filed the fire starter has to have acted quite a bit more recklessly and with more intent than these guys did, but they could be fined by the county for burning without a permit and face civil suits.