Butte burn draws citation

PALMER — A Butte man has been cited for negligent burning for a March 27 fire that climbed up the side of Bodenburg Butte.

Lynn Sandvik started the fire as a burn pile, but it got out of his control. Borough firefighters, as well as state Division of Forestry crews, responded to douse the blaze.

Glenn Holt, a Forestry spokesman, said Sandvik’s citation lists two violations of state law — that the fire didn’t have an adequate fire break and that it spread out of control, causing damage. Some of that damage, he said, was to a parcel of state land. The total fine for both violations is set at $1,000, Holt said.

“The state Division of Forestry has been told by the community and legislators and popular public opinion that they are tired of people doing things that, if not criminally insane, are at least in disregard of people’s rights,” Holt said.

The citation is the second issued this year, he said. Most years there are fewer than a dozen cases filed in court relating to out-of-control burns.

In addition to the fine, Forestry is seeking to recover the cost to fight the fire, Holt said, either through the restitution portion of the current criminal case or in a civil court lawsuit. In Sandvik’s case, the firefighting effort wasn’t terribly extensive, consisting entirely of ground crews.

“I don’t believe it’s going to be tens of thousands of dollars,” Holt said. But if someone negligently starts a fire and Forestry has to send out its air tankers and helicopters, costs can potentially climb into the millions.

—Andrew Wellner