MEDORA, N.D. (AP) -- Fire investigators are looking into the cause of three fires the Little Missouri National Grasslands in less than three weeks, and human fire-starters could be billed for the cost.
The fires, now contained, burned about 3,500 acres, most of it Forest Service land. The latest one, called the Whitetail fire, burned northwest of Fairfield, in Billings County.
The Whitetail fire burned mature junipers, some 150 years old, leaving a fragrant cedar smell behind early this week.
Investigators believe the first fire, on July 27, was started by lightning. The second fire, Aug. 15, may have been caused by a campfire, they said. The third fire started Aug. 19, on an oil well pad.
The cost of fighting the first blaze was estimated at around $85,000 in work hours and equipment. The cost for the August fires was at least $100,000, said Ron Jablonski, the Forest Service's Medora District ranger. The second fire also cost a petroleum company oil production valued at $120,000 a day.
``This is a whole other ball game. This is big league,'' said Kurt Hansen, a ranger and incident commander on the third fire. ``This is the largest human-caused fire in quite a while.''
At 2,000 acres, the third blaze was the biggest of the recent three, but still small compared to the 1999 Halloween fire that roared through the grasslands from Montana nearly to Watford City.
The recent fires were in the Medora district of the grasslands; the Halloween fire was in the McKenzie district to the north.
In the case of the 1999 fire, which burned nearly 70,000 acres, a man was billed and his insurance company was involved, said Oscar Knudtson, the chief fire ranger.
The Forest Service owns land in southwestern North Dakota that contains the state's only native stand of Ponderosa pines, as well as columnar junipers. Knudtson said the risk of fire there makes the agency nervous enough to send spotters out every morning after a night of lightning strikes.
The agency has planned for two years to conduct a managed fire in the pines to reduce the risk of a wildfire, but both years have been too dry. Tentative plans are to attempt a prescribed burn next spring.
``We'd prefer the fire be a controlled fire,'' Knudtson said, ``rather than a bolt of lightning comes and it's 'off to the races and let it rip' like the last couple.''
Information from: Bismarck Tribune
