Taxpayers have ended up footing almost $4 million of the $5.1 million bill to fight two human-caused 2012 Utah County wildfires — one sparked by a piece of heavy equipment, the other by two men shooting at an exploding target.
Five years after the wildfires destroyed a combined 7,700 acres of land, affected government agencies have approved settlements for the people and companies they say are responsible for the Quail Fire and the Dump Fire.
In response to a records request from The Salt Lake Tribune, the U.S. government released documents Thursday detailing six civil settlements that recovered a little more than half of the $1.6 million it spent fighting the Quail Fire near Alpine.
The Quail Fire sparked on July 3, 2012 by a track hoe that was being used to trench a new subdivision. The blaze burned about 2,200 acres of mostly Forest Service land in the and forced the evacuation of roughly 500 homes during the seven days it was burning out of control.
Federal prosecutors previously investigated the fire for possible criminal violations, but declined to bring charges in 2013.
In July 2016, federal prosecutors filed the civil lawsuit against developers, construction engineers and machinery operators who allegedly failed to take safety precautions to prevent or extinguish a fire — despite area conditions and weather that increased the risks.
Court papers allege developers failed to wet or cut down vegetation before using excavation equipment, nor was a water truck placed nearby. Court papers also say workers either did not have a fire extinguisher or had one that was insufficient for suppressing a wildfire.
Prosecutors also contended that equipment operators used an ignition accelerant when the track hoe stalled, which raised the temperature of the engine chamber to a “hotter-than-normal” level.
As an operator was moving the track hoe for refueling, a fire ignited under the machine or immediately adjacent to it, the lawsuit states. Despite efforts to block the fire with a hastily dug earthen berm, the flames quickly burned out of control.
In settlement documents, the six Utah companies and developers agreed to pay a total of $837,534.10 — roughly half of the full $1,649,440.38 it cost to suppress the wildfire.
The entities that settled are:
The settlements were agreed upon in January, February and April of this year, the documents show.
The federal government this year also settled with the second of two men responsible for igniting the Dump Fire, which originated at a Saratoga Springs landfill, spread to more than 5,500 acres of land and cost more than $3.5 million to fight.
The settlement, approved in June, says State Farm, Kenneth Nielsen’s insurance provider when the fire began, agreed to pay $300,000 to the U.S. Department of Justice, which will keep its portion of the money and divvy the rest out to the state, Utah County, Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs, each of which signed off on the terms of the settlement, said Melodie Rydalch, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman.
Of the total settlement, 49.85 percent will go to the federal government, 29.14 percent to Saratoga Springs and 21.01 percent to Utah (for state, county and Eagle Mountain expenses), said Utah County Attorney Cort Griffin. The county has already been reimbursed for its part in controlling the wildfire, based on a contract it has with the state, Griffin clarified.
The Dump Fire began on June 21, 2012, when Nielsen and Jeffery Conant shot at an exploding target and sparked the fire, which burned within a half-mile or less of some homes. Thousands of residents in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs were evacuated from June 22-23, 2012. The fire was contained June 25, 2012.
A similar settlement with Conant for about $135,000 was approved last year, Griffin and Rydalch said.
Griffin said the settlement amounts are based on the defendants’ particular financial circumstances. If the government asked for the full amount, the defendants could file for bankruptcy and the government could end up not being reimbursed at all, he said.
Rydalch added that in most fire cases, the government generally looks to settle them as negligence cases. The resolution may include accepting the person’s insurance policy limits, she said, though it may be appropriate to ask people to pay additional amounts on top of what their insurance providers pay.
A specific branch in the U.S. Attorney’s Office is dedicated to fire suppression recovery actions full-time, but many cases — such as these — take years for the various agencies involved to determine the cost of fighting the fire and rehabilitating the land, Rydalch said.
There have been a few instances in the last 20 years when the federal government has filed criminal charges in connection with public land fires, she said.
Nielsen and Conant each pleaded no contest to a class B misdemeanor charge of prohibited targets in 4th District Court in 2013. As part of a plea agreement, charges of class A misdemeanor reckless burning were dismissed.
“We think it is important to remind people about the potential risks of starting fires,” Rydalch said. “All of us need to use common sense when dealing with things that may start a fire, and take appropriate precautions.”