Idaho Mountain Express: Bellevue man to be charged with starting fire

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Bellevue man to be charged with starting fire

Suspect allegedly used fireworks to cause Colorado Gulch blaze

By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Aerial crews battle the Colorado Gulch Fire near Hailey in July. Express file photo

    The Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has approved filing a misdemeanor charge against a 19-year-old Bellevue man for allegedly starting the Colorado Gulch Fire west of Hailey in July.
   Blaine County Sheriff Gene Ramsey said Monday that paperwork was still being prepared but that Mauricio Pedraza will be formally charged this week with the crime of “damage to forage on public lands for throwing away or leaving lighted substances.” Ramsey said a 14-year-old girl, who he declined to identify, will be charged with the same crime.
   Ramsey said further that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is considering civil charges against Pedraza to help pay for extinguishing the blaze.
   The Colorado Gulch Fire started at about 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 6, in the Croy Canyon area about three miles west of Hailey. A quick response from local and federal firefighters, including aerial crews, stopped the growth of the fire by Tuesday, July 8. The fire was considered fully contained by Thursday evening, July 10.
   Before being contained, the fire burned 728 acres of sagebrush and grasslands in Croy Canyon. Several homes were threatened but none were burned.
   Ramsey said Pedraza and the juvenile are accused of starting the fire with fireworks. He said a second juvenile, a 16-year-old girl, is not believed to have been involved in causing the fire.
   “He [Pedraza] and the two girls were out driving around when this happened,” Ramsey said. “They lit off leftover Fourth of July fireworks from the vehicle.”
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com

acheter viagra
comprar viagra
buy viagra

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: