Man accused of igniting massive fire
A 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of igniting a wildfire last month that destroyed homes, outbuildings and cattle across more than 32,000 acres in northeast Colorado.
Patrick Svoboda was allegedly welding on a metal feed trough in a dry cornfield in roughly 50-mph winds, sending flames racing across the drought-parched prairie toward the town of Haxtun, the Logan County Sheriff’s Office says.
According to an arrest warrant, within a day of the fire igniting on March 6, a sheriff’s deputy — after having pinpointed the fire to starting on Svoboda’s property — knocked on his door only to be greeted by a lawyer from Denver.
“(The lawyer) informed me he was the counsel for Mr. Svoboda’s insurance company and his client would not be allowed to speak to me, per his legal advice,” Investigator Alex Eckhardt wrote in the warrant.
Svoboda is accused of fourth-degree arson — a Class 4 felony — and reckless endangerment in the fire and was arrested last week and booked into jail. Three homes, several outbuildings and vehicles, and hundreds of cattle were destroyed in the fire, which scorched 32,546 acres.
Eckhardt wrote in the warrant that Svoboda had “consciously disregarded the Red Flag Warning” that had been issued the day the fire began and that Svoboda had not reported the blaze.
“All of the evidence pointed to this fire being the result of reckless human action,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The warrant lists nine victims of the fire, who together lost more than $420,000 in lost structures and thousands of dollars more in farmland. Officials have said it can take up to three years for land to recover after such a fierce wildfire.
One victim reported losing $500,000 in land and property alone.