A year after a fire caused more than $8 million in damages, the man who caused the blaze pleaded guilty and agreed to a $200,000 fine. He started the fire by firing at an explosive filled with colored powder meant to reveal the sex of his child.
An off-duty Border Patrol agent was holding a gender-reveal celebration for his wife’s pregnancy last year when he accidentally started a 47,000-acre wildfire, his attorney said.
The incident will cost Dennis Dickey $220,000 in restitution after he pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to a misdemeanor charge of causing a fire without a permit.
Nearly 800 firefighters from various agencies battled the Sawmill Fire for about a week in April 2017, at a cost of about $8.2 million.
The wildfire began when Dickey shot a target that contained Tannerite, an explosive substance designed to detonate when shot by a high-velocity firearm, U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Brent Robinson wrote in an affidavit filed Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court. The explosion was caught on film by a witness.