Reading a little more about the events in Oregon, there were two sets of fires. The first certainly sounds like it might be arson.
There were claims that it was also a burn that got out of control. Apparently the Hammonds did call in to get permission for the burn and that call was played in court. The prosecutors claimed that the Hammonds had already started fires in multiple places on BLM land.
Keep in mind that such burns were fairly routine until recently. Sometimes the BLM had burns and sometimes they jumped onto private property. Sometimes private property owners had burns and sometimes those jumped onto BLM property. Until the Hammonds, it doesn't appear that anyone was ever prosecuted for such burns.
The second fires do not sound like arson -- they were reportedly controlled backfires on their own property set in an attempt to create a firebreak to stop fires from the BLM land from burning their entire property as well. From what I understand, using such backfires is a legitimate tactic used in fighting such fires. Unfortunately for them, the backfires burned back onto BLM land, but it doesn't sound intentional.
05 Jan 2016, 9:30 pm
