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Denver PostSerial arsonists suspected in 27 fires Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - A pair of serial arsonists might be responsible for 27 fires over four weeks in two Front Range counties, fire investigators said Tuesday. Authorities are trying to figure out who did it - and why anyone would set a fire during this severe drought. The small fires - 15 fires along the U.S. 285 corridor and 12 in Black Forest - might have been caused by serial arsonists intent on creating a disaster or merely thrilled by watching firefighters chase their handiwork, authorities in Jefferson and El Paso counties say. "It could be one person or group of people or not, but to have 27 fires started by 27 different people is not a likely thing," said Investigator Chris Nelson, an arson specialist with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, who discovered that the highway fires there might be linked. Investigators said it is unlikely the same person set the fires in both counties. They are chasing leads but have named no suspects. Nelson has even asked federal authorities to rule out one prominent but unlikely culprit: U.S. Forest Service employee Terry Lynn Barton. She was charged in U.S. District Court last week with starting the Hayman fire. "Right now, no one is immune from suspicion," Nelson said. In Black Forest, residents angry over the arsons have fire officials nervous. "Everyone has their opinion about where they'd like to shoot this person," said David Ury, chief of the Black Forest Fire and Rescue District. "We're trying to keep our citizens from becoming a vigilante force." The year began dry in Colorado, and wildfires began breaking out in April. By early June, conditions were so arid that federal officials banned fires on public lands. Within weeks, several other wildfires erupted, including the Hayman fire, which exploded into the state's largest in history. As the state became tinder dry, arsonists went to work in Jefferson and El Paso counties. The first of the arsons occurred on May 13 when three fires were set along U.S. 285 and Colorado 126 near Pine Junction, southwest of Conifer. The last was a group of seven fires that were set Sunday in Black Forest, along the intersection of Elementary and Highline drives, officials there said. All the fires were set in grass or brush, not structures. None of the fires has burned more than 900 square feet, but investigators worry that extreme drought conditions throughout the state - the kind that whipped the Hayman fire into the largest in Colorado history and shut down forests statewide - could quickly make for a disaster. "It's very unsettling. With the horrible drought, it could have been devastating," said Sgt. James Groth, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the Black Forest fires. "It's absurd that anyone would do this." Nelson said the spike in the number of fires in Jefferson County prompted him to look at them together rather than separately. The county usually has two or three arson fires a month, he said. "That's when we started to see the pattern that they were all along 285," Nelson said, noting that details of each fire indicate they might be the work of the same person. All the fires were ignited during the day, unusual for arsonists, he said. "Typically, arsons occur between midnight and 3 a.m.," Nelson said. "These were during peak times of the day along heavilytraveled roads where someone would likely see the smoke and put it out."
The last two fires in Jefferson County were set June 11, one along Surrey Road near Aspen Park and another along North Turkey Creek near Indian Hills. Each fire was just off the highway, Nelson said. "It's possible the ones who set (the fires) came back to watch the firefighters put them out," he said. In Black Forest, authorities on Sunday battled seven small fires at one intersection just a week after putting out several roadside arson fires a couple of miles south. The first of the Black Forest fires occurred along South Forest Drive and Old Ranch Road on June 9. A day later, firefighters were dousing a pair of fires just a halfmile away on Old Ranch Road. Then on June 17, two fires were reported on South Holmes Road, one in the morning and another in the evening. Investigators found another location on the same road where an arsonist apparently tried, and failed, to start a third blaze that day. "Black Forest is a heavily wooded area with lots of private houses," said El Paso County's Groth. "I can't overemphasize how dangerous those fires are in this drought." The largest of the Black Forest fires, where homes average be tween $200,000 and $500,000, burned only 30 square feet, Groth said, and all were reported by residents. A 74-acre wildfire in the spring "got everyone's attention" about the dangers of drought, fire chief Ury said. "Now, with all the forest fires going on, how can anyone be so stupid, or so vindictive, as to do this?" Ury asked. David Migoya can be reached at dmigoya@denverpost.com or 303-820-1506.
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