Utah man charged in $34 million wildfire

SALT LAKE CITY — A man accused of accidentally sparking a Utah wildfire that forced some 1,500 people from their homes last month and cost about $34 million to fight was charged with two misdemeanor counts of reckless burning Tuesday.

Iron County prosecutor Scott Garrett said Robert Ray Lyman, 60, who lives in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville, was charged. A message left for Lyman seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.

While Garrett declined further comment about the case, authorities have said the fire started when a man set a pile of weeds on fire, and the blaze raged out of control near a cabin in the ski town of Brian Head on June 17.

The blaze, which torched more than 100 square miles and burned for nearly a month in hot, dry conditions, forced hundreds of evacuations at homes and cabins, and more than a dozen buildings were destroyed.