Colorado Wildfire May Have Been Intentionally Set

The New York Times ^ | June 19, 2002 | Michael Janofsky

[Timesink]

Your federal government employees at work!

[AlaskaErik]

This federal employee has done more damage in one fell swoop than ELF has done during its entire history. Good going, you moron!

[stands2reason]

That @#$%&*@#!!!!!!!!!!!</font size>

[meenie]

She thought she made all the right moves but failed to become a hero. The back-up story failed to gain her any sympathy. She has to be a little twisted in logic to attempt to pull this caper.

[hoosierham]

There is too much land under Federal control; it should be auctioned off and or homesteaded, because a private owner will take interest in maintaining the property.

[wafflehouse]

wow, can this story get any stupider?

[Mamzelle]

Don't forget that there are some dead firefighters for her to answer. This is homicide, now.

Have you ever heard of Munchehousen's Syndrome? (I'm sure I'm not spelling that right...) I think I remember reading that it tends to afflict a lot of neurotic women. They stage catastrophes for the sympathy , attn, and commotion they cause. Usually combined with masochism and self-injury, but they also can hurt their children in contrived illnesses and accidents.

Put that in your Wimmin's Studies...

[mewzilla]

Or maybe she's a firebug. Any other suspicious fires when she's been in the area, I wonder?

[Mamzelle]

Firebugs are more often men, and the fires more often buildings. That's not to say she's not a firesetter. She sounds more the hysterical female to me--"Burning a Love Letter"--good grief, what a diva.

[bmwcyle]

Hell hath no fury...

[maica]

The complaint provided no details, but the official said investigators were persuaded by the amount of underbrush placed in a way that appeared that it had been used to set a fire.

---

I thought is was impossible for a person - self-important enough to think she was entitled to burn ANYTHING in an area where she was being paid to prohibit fire - to start a fire and then WALK AWAY while it was still smoldering.
That was yesterday's story.
Deliberately starting it makes much more sense.
Maybe she should be granted bail!

[hellinahandcart]

The one thing that was missing from all these stories was a comment from the estranged husband.

Betting that the police went to see the dude, who responded "Letter? I never sent the crazy b!t@h no stinking letter even back when I liked her, why would I send her one now that we're separated?" and that's how they knew she did it deliberately.

[forester]

Ms. Barton, a seasonal employee of the Forest Service for 18 years

That is a long time to be a seasonal, I wonder why she never got picked up full time. I think that your intial reaction was correct - namely, is she a member of AFSEEE?

[Carry_Okie]

Anybody who bought that story of 'burning a letter in a fire ring started the holocaust' without suspicion, has really lost it.

Besides her potential affiliation with (A?)FSEEE, someone should research whether there was an impending timber sale in that area.

[forester]

Besides her potential affiliation with (A?)FSEEE, someone should research whether there was an impending timber sale in that area.

Couldn't remember the exact acronym for those clowns. Anywho, good point on the timber sale angle. I wonder if she is affiliated with Dirt First! or any other lunatic outfit.

[hellinahandcart]

Anybody who bought that story of 'burning a letter in a fire ring started the holocaust' without suspicion, has really lost it.

I never bought it. Here's why:

How did she get to the forest? By car, more than likely.
What's in most cars? An ashtray. These days most people use them as tiny trash cans instead of cigarette receptacles, but NEVERTHELESS--
If she had been seized by the sudden and irresistible urge to burn a letter that day, she could have done so safely in her car. Not by doing something that she would fine the crap out of any citizen-peon for doing in that restricted area, namely starting a little campfire.

I say hang her. She's a vicious lying loon.

[TLBSHOW]

Must be a liberal women!

[r9etb]

There is too much land under Federal control; it should be auctioned off and or homesteaded, because a private owner will take interest in maintaining the property.

Leaving aside the discussion of Federal control of forest lands, it's not at all clear to me that "owner interest" would have prevented this fire.

First off, the prevailing approach over the past several decades has been to prevent fires. There's no reason to expect that private owners would have done any differently, especially if they were under the misapprehension that fires = loss of timber income.

Second, even if the value of controlled, small burns were known, it would probably be too expensive for small land owners to do it on a large scale. (This leaves large corporate land owners, with which I have a different set of problems.)

And third, it's so damned dry here this year that probably nothing would have helped. Yesterday the humidity in the fire area was in the single digits.

[Elsie]

Ms. Barton, a seasonal employee of the Forest Service for 18 years..

...has been picked to head up the new Airport Security training. She has had an excellance record of Government employment for 17 years, only recently showing indications that she is going to be serving the Gov't for a much longer time and in a much more secure place.

She brings much experience into her new federal position and is no longer hampered by a man in her life.

[Balding_Eagle]

There are NO dead firefighters in this fire. That said there are many people evacuated, homes burnt.

The fire is about 17 - 18 miles from my house now. The wind is pushing it in the direction of the Air Force Academy.