A campus policeman at Utah Valley State College has established a fund with a local bank to help pay the cost of fighting the Tank Fire, which was started Aug. 5 by two teenage boys playing with a cigarette lighter.
The fire cost $1.5 million to contain after burning 2,800 acres on the foothills of Mt. Timpanogos.But only $50 has been deposited into the account in the week since he established it, Officer Tracy Marrott said Thursday.
Marrott said he set up the fund after hearing the state was planning to bill the boys' families and that one of the families was putting their home up for sale to cover the costs.
"This could have been my kids," said Marrott, who has two of his own. "I realize kids make mistakes and I'm sure these families haven't done anything different from anyone else in raising them."
He said he hopes the community will pitch in to help take the burden of fighting the fire off the families and the state. "It's not that I wanted to see the kids get off," he said. "They should still be prosecuted. I just hate to see this turn their lives negative."
But fire officials said there is no policy that levies the full cost of a firefighting effort on those who may have started it.
Loyal Clark, spokeswoman for the Uinta National Forest, said the U.S. Forest Service does not send a bill to people who may be responsible for starting the fire.
That decision usually is left to the state or a local court, depending on where the fire started.
Orem Fire Division Commander Gary Wise also said the families would not be billed for the full cost of the fire. The state only seeks what the person's homeowner's policy covers, he said.
Marrot said if the account generates more than is needed to cover the cost of the Tank Fire, the excess could be given to the state to fight other fires that broke out this summer.
The fund is set up at Zions Bank, 406 N. State, but donations can be made at any Zions Bank. Donations should be designated to Firefund.