Scouts' lawsuit blames wildfire on 'unknown' boys

The Boy Scouts of America say they are not responsible for starting a wildfire in the Uinta Mountains on June 2002 but have pointed an accusatory finger at several "unknown Scouts" who were "on their own free time" when the fire started.

In a strange twist to a $14 million suit to recover firefighting costs filed by the U.S. attorney and the Utah attorney general against the Boy Scouts of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Boy Scouts of America filed suit last Tuesday against several unknown Scouts whom they now blame for starting the blaze.

The government alleges that about 20 Boy Scouts started at least one camp fire during an overnight camping trip for a wilderness-survival badge. Sometime before 1 p.m., the Scouts broke camp near the East Fork of the Bear Boy Scout Reservation. Around 1:30 p.m. the East Fork fire was spotted in the area, which forced dozens of evacuations and eventually burned 14,200 acres in the Uinta Mountains near the Wyoming border.

But according to a third-party suit filed by the BSA's Great Salt Lake Council, the blaze was not started by the 20-member Scout group sponsored by an LDS Church ward but rather one to three "unknown" Scouts acting on their own unsupervised time.

BSA attorney Robert Wallace said two separate sources, which are not identified in the suit, claim that just after the larger group broke camp and extinguished the fire in a stone ring, the unidentified Scouts returned and started a new fire in the same stone ring, which then caught a nearby lean-to on fire. The hut had been built the night before. Wallace said the Boy Scouts do not know at this time the identity of the Scouts they say are responsible.

"We're not at fault," Wallace said. The suit states the Scouts were "on their own free or leisure time" and therefore liable for the fire, not the Boy Scouts of America.

"Anybody who has been to a camp and who has been Scouting knows that at times kids go out on their own for a while," Wallace said. "We think that if we're not supervising or if we're not watching them at the time, and we're not actually contributing to the damage-causing activity, then the Boy Scouts of America are not liable."

Federal officials call the claim ridiculous.

"To suggest that there's a portion of time that Scouts, who are at Scout camp, are out on their own time is kind of scary," said Utah U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch. She pointed out many of these Scouts are as young as 11 years old and that parents assume their children are under supervision.

"I would think twice if I were a parent, knowing there's a time when no one is responsible for their safety or their conduct," Rydalch said.

Wallace said he wanted to make it clear that his suit is not asking for damages, but instead asks the court to reduce and assign a percentage of the $14 million the government is seeking to the unknown Scouts.

The federal government is suing for more than $13 million and the state is asking for $600,000 for its share of the costs involved in fighting the fire.

---

E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com