State sues timber company over North Idaho wildfire

LEWISTON (AP) - Idaho officials have filed a lawsuit against a timber company and its contractor, contending they're responsible for a wildfire that killed a 20-year-old Forest Service firefighter and burned more than 300 acres in North Idaho.

The Lewiston Tribune reports the state filed the lawsuit Monday in 2nd District Court seeking an unspecified amount in monetary damages for costs in fighting the fire.

Anne Veseth of Moscow died Aug. 12, 2012, after being struck and killed by a falling tree while fighting the Steep Corner Fire near Orofino.

The lawsuit names Potlatch Land and Lumber, Potlatch Forest Holdings, Clearwater Paper Corp., Potlatch Corp., and DABCO Inc., a Kamiah-based logging contractor.

Matt Van Vleet, Clearwater Paper spokesman, said the company was named in the suit by mistake.

"We don't own any forest land and never have," he said.

A Potlatch spokesman declined to comment.

Idaho officials contend the DABCO logging crew started the fire using equipment that didn't meet Forest Service standards required by law. Specifically, the lawsuit said the crew used a cable yarding system that employed a mechanized carriage with an internal combustion engine.

The lawsuit contends the carriage's spark arrester didn't meet required standards, and when a cable under high tension broke, the carriage swung violently and flipped, spilling hot metal and carbon from the muffler into dry logging debris.

Officials with the Idaho Department of Lands said the sparks and hot metal caused the fire that the logging crew failed to suppress despite attempts to build a fire line and use water.