Both sides are girding their loins over the Rim Fire case.
Keith Matthew Emerald, a 32 year old man and resident of Columbia, a town in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California, is accused in a four-count indictment or starting the Rim Fire when he lost control of an illegal campfire on August 17,2013. In August of this year he pled not guilty to the charges.
The Rim Fire burned 400 square miles of land in California, including parts of Sequoia National Forest and Yosemite National Park over the course of two months. The fire destroyed 11 homes and cost $125 million to fight.
In August a grand jury returned the four-count indictment against Emerald, alleging that he started an illegal campfire on August 17, 2013 in an area where such fires were prohibited and that the fire spread beyond his control.
On the afternoon of October 7, 2014 a wildfire began at Dog Rock on the El Portal Road between the Yosemite National Park boundary and the Arch Rock Entrance Station. The Dog Rock Fire was first reported around 2:45, and swelled to approximately 130 acres. Fire crews and aircraft were dispatched to the scene and responded to the fire.
Press release from the U.S.D.A.:
A deer hunter — not pot growers, as some politicians with an agenda publicly stated — started the Rim Fire that burned through over 237,341 acres of land in the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park before firefighters finally got the upper hand. The 402 square mile fire blazed through more than $127 million of taxpayer money just fighting it. It began in the steep hills of the remote Jawbone Ridge area to the east of Groveland on August 17, 2013 and quickly spread out of control. Losses are estimated to be in excess of $50 million.