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.
As the Rim fire continues to burn closer and into Yosemite, nobody seems to want to point out why this fire is burning so well, or so fast.
For almost two weeks the Rim Fire has continued to burn and expand in northern California. By the time it is contained and put out it will, undoubtedly, be one of the larger – if not the largest – fire in California’s history. There are many reasons for the fire, and the finger-pointing will begin before the ashes are cool, but in the meantime there are amy photographers on the scene recording incredible, heroic, frightening, and even horrific images.