A private landowner is facing federal charges for starting the Shoe Fire. Forest Service investigators determined the fire started October 9th in a meadow where the landowner had been attempting to do an unpermitted control burn to manage the weeds on his property. The fire spread into the national forest lands and burned 5,124 acres, much of it in forest that had no recent fire history at all and was very dense. Excavators are still at work on repairing suppression damage, as well as damage done to public roads by heavy equipment. Stretches of Fenders Ferry Road and Ferry Road remain closed.
-Steve Gibson