{"id":93159,"date":"2019-07-03T03:11:02","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T03:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/official-cause-of-416-fire-corroborates-allegations-in-local-lawsuit-attorney-says\/"},"modified":"2019-07-03T03:11:02","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T03:11:02","slug":"official-cause-of-416-fire-corroborates-allegations-in-local-lawsuit-attorney-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/official-cause-of-416-fire-corroborates-allegations-in-local-lawsuit-attorney-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Official cause of 416 Fire \u2018corroborates\u2019 allegations in local lawsuit, attorney says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"No
No houses were destroyed by the 416 fire, but thousands of La Plata County residents were evacuated from their homes. At least 20 residents and business owners have filed a lawsuit against the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for starting the fire.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A government lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court \u201ccorroborated\u201d what dozens of Durango-area residents and businesses allege in a lawsuit of their own: that the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad started the 416 Fire, said Bobby Duthie, a local attorney handling the residents\u2019 lawsuit.<\/p>\n

More than 25 La Plata County residents and business owners are part of a lawsuit accusing the D&SNG of starting the fire<\/a> after eye witnesses said they saw the train start the blaze and an independent investigation by two former fire investigators with the U.S. Forest Service found the train culpable.<\/p>\n

\u201cFire experts have determined, unequivocally, that the cause of the 416 Fire was one or more burning embers, burning cinder-like material, and\/or sparks that came from the coal-fired steam train at or around 9:45 a.m. on June 1, 2018,\u201d according to the complaint filed in 6th Judicial District Court in La Plata County.<\/p>\n

Al Harper, D&SNG owner, did not immediately return calls Tuesday seeking comment.<\/p>\n

The 416 Fire ignited June 1, 2018, and burned 54,000 acres of mostly San Juan National Forest. Firefighters declared the fire extinguished Nov. 29.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Duthie\"
Duthie<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Duthie, lead co-council in the local residents\u2019 lawsuit blaming the train for starting the 416 Fire, said the allegations by the federal government and the accusations made by locals mirror each other, but many unknowns remain. Both lawsuits introduce evidence of the D&SNG starting fires in the past, and both seek relief from damages caused by the 416 Fire, but neither prove the train started the fire, he said; that\u2019s for a jury to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much more investigation that still needs to be conducted to determine why the decision to run the train on June 1, 2018, was made by train management,\u201d he said. \u201cThat hasn\u2019t been answered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each lawsuit will make its way through the court independently, but what happens in one case could be admitted in another, Duthie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re (the U.S. Forest Service) interested in the same thing we\u2019re interested in \u2013 that train management take responsibility for starting this fire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A seven-week jury trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 14, 2020, in the lawsuit filed by residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe train has been a big part of our lives. None of the plaintiffs, and I\u2019m sure the Forest Services feels the same way, is interested in getting rid of the train,\u201d Duthie said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to compensate people for the losses they actually suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents and businesses have sued Durango train for damages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6184,6219,5737,5736,5735,5741],"tags":[2838,170,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-93159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-416-fire","category-durango-and-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad-co","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","tag-416-fire","tag-durango-and-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad-co","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93159"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=93159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}