Federal grand jury charges man with starting Rim Fire

A federal grand jury charged Keith Emerald of Tuolumne County on Thursday with starting the Rim Fire, a wildfire that began in August 2013 and burned more than 250,000 acres in California. According to his indictment, Emerald, 32, is charged with starting an illegal fire in the Stanislaus National Forest on August 17 last year and letting it spread beyond his control. The nine-week blaze that followed was the third largest in California history and resulted in the evacuation of the Cal Alumni Association’s Lair of the Golden Bear camp. Aside from felony charges of setting timber afire and giving false statements to a government agency, Emerald was charged with the misdemeanors of leaving a fire unattended and unextinguished and violating a fire restriction order...more