Man is sentenced in Yosemite-area wildfire

A 29-year-old man who mistakenly ignited a wildfire last summer that threatened Yosemite National Park was sentenced Thursday to 60 hours of community service and fined $541.

Davin Craig Mosher was target shooting with an assault rifle when he started the blaze, which blackened 34,000 acres and destroyed 30 homes in Mariposa County.

A Superior Court judge also sentenced Mosher to three years of informal probation. The judge noted that Mosher accepted full responsibility and that the incident was unintentional.

During the blaze in late July, many residents uprooted from their homes voiced outrage against Mosher and expressed hope that he would serve a stiff sentence. The fire started along a river on federal land when a ricocheting bullet sent a spark into dry brush. Mosher alerted authorities, but the flames spread quickly.

Mosher told investigators that he was unaware he was using bullets with steel jackets, which can cause a spark. Some shooting ranges have banned steel-jacket bullets because of the fire threat.

-- Eric Bailey