Two people have been ordered to pay $9,450 restitution for starting
the Three Mile Fire nine miles east of Florence, Montana in August,
2014 that burned about 50 acres before firefighters extinguished it at a
cost estimated at $94,000. Tristan C. Olson, 30, of Missoula and
Caitlin E. Hoover, 28, of Stevensville, Montana agreed to the settlement
in exchange for the felony charges being dropped. They will also have
to follow specific conditions for three years, including abstaining from
the consumption of alcohol and drugs or entering bars or casinos.
The fire started when an exploding target was detonated in a tree surrounded by waist-high cured grass.
Photo by Cory Rennaker, Bitterroot National Forest Helitack, USFS.
During the initial attack on the fire, Bitterroot National Forest
firefighters rescued a pair of mountain lion cubs. The kittens, just a
few weeks old, were taking shelter under a burning log. Firefighters
called in a helicopter bucket drop to cool the log, and the kittens, wet
from the 600 gallons of water, were rescued. They were adopted by
the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo and Aquarium, and on September 23
made an appearance on David Letterman’s show along with Jack Hanna.
The two people being charged were busted at least in part
by writing about their adventure on Facebook that amounted to a confession.
Exploding targets consist of two ingredients that when mixed by the
end user create an explosive when shot by a high-velocity projectile.
They have caused many fires since they became more popular in recent
years and have been
banned in some areas, and
caused the death of one person. In
June, 2013 a man attending a bachelor-bachelorette party in Minnesota
was killed after shrapnel from the device struck him in the abdomen
causing his death. The Missoulian reported that two years ago a woman in
Ohio had her hand nearly blown off while taking a cellphone video of a
man firing at an exploding target placed in a refrigerator about 150
feet away.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment