By Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) -A county sheriff in Oregon has arrested a U.S. Forest Service employee on suspicion of reckless burning after a controlled burn escaped and scorched about 20 acres (8 hectares) of private land.
The arrest was unprecedented, according to one wildfire expert, and comes amid complaints by land owners and officials in western states when controlled burns get out of hand.
Such burns are designed to prevent or contain wildfires.
Relations between New Mexico communities and the Forest Service were strained earlier this year when a controlled burn sparked a large wildfire. A Forest Service review found that pressure to meet objectives may have led the agency to ignore risks posed by a controlled burn.
In Oregon, Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley said in a statement on Wednesday his office arrested a 39-year-old “burn boss” after a controlled burn escaped and torched 20 acres belonging to a cattle rancher.
Reached on Thursday, McKinley said it was the first such arrest by his office, and that the suspect was released after being processed at the jail on Wednesday night.
The burn boss was acting in an official capacity but could be held responsible, McKinley said.
“In my line of work, if I pull the trigger on my gun, which I can do in the course of duty, I’m still held accountable for every bullet that goes downrange,” McKinley said.
The decision whether to prosecute falls to Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter, who said in a statement the investigation was continuing to determine whether the Forest Service employee acted recklessly.
But his official positon may not protect him.
“That the USFS was engaging in a prescribed burn may actually raise rather than lower the standard to which (he) will be held,” Carpenter said.
Forest Service representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Bill Gabbert, a wildfire expert writing for Wildfire Today, said, “This is the first time to this author’s knowledge that a Federal Burn Boss has been arrested for an escaped prescribed fire.”
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Richard Pullin and Jacqueline Wong)