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NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — A Nampa man has been billed for the cost of a 2015 fire in Celebration Park that U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say he started.
Celedonio Perez-Sanchez received a notice from the agency with an itemized breakdown of costs associated with the fire, which burned more than 11 square miles on June 6, KIVI-TV reported (http://bit.ly/1Sv14If). He has been asked to pay nearly $324,800.
"The BLM's investigation of the fire indicates that you are responsible for the ignition of the Celebration Fire as a result of a campfire that you constructed escaping your control," officials wrote in a letter mailed to Perez-Sanchez.
According to the summary, Perez-Sanchez told Canyon County Lake patrol officers that the campfire that started the blaze was his and that he had lost control of it.
Perez-Sanchez said he is on disability and will likely be unable to pay such a hefty fine.
"I feel like I am being punished for doing the right thing. I am not denying that there was an accident, and the accident was caused by me. But at the same time, an accident can happen to anybody," Perez-Sanchez said through a translator.
However, the Bureau of Land Management says that the notice sent to Perez-Sanchez is a standard letter meant to help the agency recover wildfire suppression costs. In Idaho, a majority of wildfires are human-caused.
Perez-Sanchez and the agency are expected to settle on a much smaller amount than the estimated $324,800, agency spokesman Larry Ridenhour told The Associated Press.
"It's not meant to be heavy-handed, but to some degree it is meant to be a deterrent," Ridenhour said. "Your actions do have consequences."
The agency chose not to file criminal charges against Perez-Sanchez because the fire was an accident, but the agency does believe that he was negligent because he started the fire in warm, windy and dry conditions.
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Information from: KIVI-TV, http://www.scrippsmedia.com/kivitv
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