Mono County couple pay $1 million for fire cost
Mono County couple pay $1 million for fire cost
17 February 2011
published by www.mercurynews.com
USA — Prosecutors say a Mono County couple has paid the federal government $1 million for damages caused by a wildfire that began on their property and spread into a national forest in the Eastern Sierra.
United States Attorney Benjamin Wagner said Thursday that Jonathan and Penny Bourne made the payment to cover the cost of fighting the September 2006 fire in the Inyo National Forest.
Prosecutors say the blazed spread from a fire pit where the couple was burning brush they had cleared from their Mono County property.
The wildfire ending up consuming about 7,500 acres, or nearly 12 square miles, in the national forest.