Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Testimony: Burned letter didn't start Hayman Wildfire The lead U.S. Forest Service investigator looking into the cause of Colorado's largest wildfire testified Tuesday that she doesn't believe the official version of how it started -- that a burning letter sparked the fire. Agent Kimberly Jones was testifying in a Denver federal civil case where five insurance companies and several property owners are suing the federal government for more than $7 million. The plaintiffs argue that the government acted negligently in the first few minutes of the fire. A Forest Service employee, Terry Barton, was convicted of starting the 2002 Hayman wildfire and spent nearly six years in a federal prison before being released this summer. Jones told the judge she never believed Barton's story that the fire started accidentally, after she burned a letter from her husband and put it in a fire pit....

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