Here is an excerpt from today local paper, for more info go to www.gazette.com

Hayman blaze

A woman employed by the U.S. Forest Service is suspected of starting one of the largest fires in Colorado history while on patrol to enforce fire bans.

Terry Barton, 38, of Teller County was arrested Sunday morning on suspicion of igniting the 102,895-acre Hayman fire that has forced the evacuation of more than 5,000 people across four counties.
Barton has admitted starting the fire.
She told investigators she was in the South Park Ranger district looking for illegal fires June 8 when she stopped to burn a letter from her estranged husband, according to court records.

Barton is being held in the El Paso County jail on charges of allegedly setting a fire in a national forest, damaging federal property and making false statements to federal fire investigators.

If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison and more than $500,000 in fines.

Barton had been a seasonal worker with the Forest Service and recently was promoted to a permanent position as a forest technician dealing with recreation, a job that involves watching over campgrounds, cleaning toilets and maintaining trail heads.
In an interview last week, Barton said she was the first to report the fire and felt badly she hadn't been able to do more to stop it.
She reported the fire to the Pueblo Fire Dispatch Center as an escaped campfire measuring about 20 feet by 20 feet, located about 1.2 miles from Park County Road 77, according to court records.
Investigators from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General began questioning Barton after finding evidence at the scene that was inconsistent with her story.

She told investigators June 10 she smelled smoke while driving, found the fire north of where the smell originated and tried to put it out. But the fire already was burning out of control.

Investigators said Barton could not have smelled smoke from where she claimed, because the distance, wind direction and magnitude of the fire were inconsistent with the report.

Six days of forensic examinations by wildfire investigators revealed the fire "was deliberately set, and had been staged to look like an escaped campfire," according to an arrest affidavit filed with the court.

When told of those conclusions Saturday, Barton admitted her initial reports were false, the arrest affidavit said.

She told investigators she was patrolling the area along Forest Road 290 from Platte Springs Road about 4 p.m. when she looked at a letter she had received that morning from her estranged husband.

Barton said she decided to burn the letter and walked to the campfire ring, where she ignited the letter with a match she had in her purse.

She said she stayed until it burned completely and walked back to her truck. As she drove past the campfire ring, she said she noticed the fire had escaped from the ring and was burning on the ground near pine trees.

Barton is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Denver today.
Meade apologized but urged the community to "rally around and with each other." He also asked the crowd not to "pre-judge" and wait until all the facts are out.

"It's an unfortunate thing," said Jim Rounds, who's been evacuated from his home in the Indian Creek subdivision, which rests on the national forest line. "This is someone who's maybe done one stupid thing in her life. What can you say? She'll live with this the rest of her life."

Steve Segin, a Pike National Forest archeologist who worked with Barton, said the arrest will not distract from the firefighters' work on the front lines.

"We have to fight the fire," Segin said. "That's the task at hand. If it happens to be a Forest Service employee, that's sad. But our focus is protecting people's home and getting the fire out. I'm here to focus on the mission - that's to put the fire out."

"Right now, everybody's in shock," said Rick Newton, a Forest Service district ranger in Leadville who's been working the Hayman fire. "It's hard to believe someone within our own ranks would do anything to harm the forest, especially given the conditions."

All I have to say is, "Dumb@$$!"

Too bad she didn't have the gumption to burn her estranged husband instead the letter. Less damage would have been done. ;)
All kidding aside, this woman should lose here job, but not got to prison. Being unemployed the rest of her life is punishment enough.

It's funny how one little lie got her caught. If she would have said "i saw the fire and tried to put it out" they never would have known.  Knowing the government, she probaly won't loose her job, they'll just send her to another civil service position.

Well, at least one of the big fires we had in this part of the world at Christmas was started by a firefighter!

Wouldn't it have been much easier (and safer) to burn the letter in an ashtray?   While said ashtray was sitting in the kitchen sink (so you could turn the faucet on in a hurry if needed)?  Or even in a fireplace?

But then again, you would need a brain to think of that....