Feds not liable in Hayman fire Terry Barton acted as an angry spouse — not a government worker — when she started the 2002 Hayman fire in the mountains west of Colorado Springs and the government can't be held responsible for her actions, a federal judge in Denver decided Tuesday. Attorneys for several insurance companies that covered the losses from the Hayman fire sued the U.S. Forest Service, asking for more than $7 million in damages and claiming that Barton was negligent in her duties as a Forest Service employee. Chief U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel denied that claim in a written decision. "When Barton violated the fire ban, she was not doing the work assigned to her, what was necessarily incidental to that work, or what was customary in the Forest Service's business," Daniel wrote. "Barton violated the fire ban and contravened the established policy of the Forest Service when she lit the letter or grass in the campfire ring. Thus, she acted outside the scope of her employment."....