LPF News: Transient Who Started 'Day Fire' - Four Years in Prison

Los Padres National Forest news: 'Day Fire'

Transient Who Started 'Day Fire' That Burned 162,000 Acres Sentenced to Nearly Four Years in Prison

VALLEJO, Calif., Nov. 17, 2008—A transient who started the 2006 Day Fire that burned more than 162,000 acres — most of which was in the Los Padres National Forest — and cost authorities more than $100 million in fire suppression costs was sentenced today to 45 months in federal prison.

Steven Emory Butcher, 49, was convicted in February of starting the one–month–long Day Fire by burning debris at his campsite in Piru Canyon. The federal jury that convicted him deliberated for only two hours before also finding him guilty of causing the 2002 Ellis Fire that burned approximately 70 acres.

"If I would have been on the jury, I would have found myself guilty too," Butcher told United States District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank.

In addition to the nearly four–year sentence, Judge Fairbank ordered Butcher to pay $101,652,000 in restitution to the Los Padres National Forest.

Butcher was found guilty of two felonies — two counts of willfully setting on fire debris in the Los Padres National Forest. He was also found guilty of three misdemeanors — allowing a fire to escape from his control, causing the Ellis Fire; violating National Forest restrictions by building a fire, which caused the Day Fire; and smoking in the Los Padres National Forest.

The Day Fire was started on September 4, 2006, on the Ojai Ranger District within a remote portion of Piru Canyon in the Sespe Wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest, a place where Butcher had long maintained a camp that he lived in for part of the year. The fire burned until October 2, 2006, causing 18 injuries and the destruction of 11 structures.

The Ellis Fire was started on October 4, 2002, in the Los Padres National Forest, approximately two miles southeast of the later origin of the Day Fire.

"The Day Fire resulted in horrendous impacts both economical and social," said Tom Kuekes, District Ranger for the Los Padres National Forest. "The impacts are ongoing. We're still dealing with hazardous trees, and erosion, not to mention the risk to firefighters and citizens lives, millions of dollars in lost time redirecting traffic with Interstate 5 closed and air quality. We are very pleased that justice has been served."

This case was investigated by special agents with the United States Forest Service.

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NEWS RELEASE: USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region
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