The Border Patrol says one of its agents had spotted the Monument Fire as the blaze near the U.S.-Mexico border was beginning to grow. The agent who reported the fire wanted to extinguish it but realized it was too big to fight, said Steve Adkinson, a Border Patrol spokesman. The Border Patrol’s statement comes after Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said he believes illegal immigrants started the 47-square-mile Monument Fire near Sierra Vista. Dever had said a border agent had been pursuing a group of illegal immigrants nearby when the fire broke out on June 12. The agent wasn’t pursuing illegal immigrants but was instead looking for footprints and other signs of illegal border-crossers, Adkinson says. Investigators declined to say whether the human-caused fire was started by illegal immigrants. AP
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