Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
The State of Oregon is pursuing the people it considers responsible for causing three wildland fires that cost the state over $40 million to fight.
The largest of the three claims was filed against Dominic Decarlo, 70, and Cloyd Deardorff, 64. The pair are accused of accidentally starting the Stouts Creek Fire with a mower on July 30, 2015. The fire burned over 26,000 acres and cost the state $37 million to control. The state sent Decarlo and Deaddorff a bill, which if not paid may lead to a collection suit.
The state filed suit against two other sets of parties responsible for wildland fires that occurred in the summer of 2014.
John Lee Habberstad, a rancher in Eastern Oregon, is being sued for $3.7 million for starting a 2,700-acre wildfire in August 2014. The suit accuses Habberstad of negligence for driving a utility vehicle across fields of “bone-dry” grass. Investigators concluded the vehicle’s exhaust system started the blaze.
The other suit was filed against Joe Thurmond Askins, his wife Martha Havlicek-Askins and his step-daughter, Ashley Martha Myers, for a fire in July 2014 fire. The trio was accused of having a campfire during campfire ban. The campfire escaped its enclosure and triggered a 200-acre blaze in Klamath County in the southern part of the state. The state is seeking $900,000 in damages.
