SANDPOINT — The Idaho Department of Lands is looking to square up with three Bonner County landowners for costs the department incurred while combating brush and wildfires in 2017 and 2018, according to 1st District Court records.

The department filed suit against Blanchard landowner Eric D. Ryals on Oct. 11 to recover $8,495.41 in fire-suppression costs related to the Pleasant View Fire in October 2017. The suit alleges Ryals set fire to a slash pile of brush and tree limbs without a burn permit or any of the requisite tools — a Pulaski, shovel and water buckets.

The suit alleges that Ryals did not clear a space between the slash and the native fuels while building the pile.

A day after the slash pile was set on fire, Ryals assumed it had burned itself out because he no longer saw smoke emanating from it, the suit said. Three days after setting the fire, winds of up to 50 mph sparked a fast-moving brush fire, which moved east through dry ground and burned 12 acres. It subsequently morphed into a forest fire, according to the IDL suit.

“Mr. Ryals failed to take adequate and proper precautions to prevent the spread of the Pleasant View Fire from its point of ignition to other lands in Bonner County,” Deputy Attorney General Angela Schaer Kaufmann said in the civil complaint.

The state further alleges that Ryals undertook no reasonable efforts to control the fire and told his neighbor to call 911 because he couldn’t find his phone.

Earlier this month, IDL filed suit against Priest River landowner Daniel Harle for a May 2018 brush fire that resulted from two slash piles.

The suit alleges Harle believed the fire was extinguished, but it went on to spread to a shed and burned neighboring property.

The state is seeking $1,371 in costs for dousing the Bluebird Lane fire.

The suit is also seeking $501 from Sagle landowner Robert Macumber for a debris/campfire in September 2018 on Muskrat Lake Road which led to a fire among some timbers, according to court documents.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.