2 Teens Billed $480,000 for Blaze Started by Fireworks

Two Ojai teenagers have been slapped with a $480,000 bill by the county to cover its cost of fighting a 4,300-acre brush fire the boys started last December--and the U.S. Forest Service will probably ask the pair to pay an additional $368,000.

But Brett Schwermer and Jonathan Barrett, both 18, will likely not be asked to repay the greatest portion of the firefighting costs, an estimated $2.3-million bill from the California Department of Forestry.

David LeMay, chief deputy for law enforcement of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said his agency has no plans to pursue reimbursement because it is unrealistic to expect two teenage boys to pay such an enormous debt. It would ultimately cost the agency more money to pursue collection than it is likely to collect, he said.

“We are sitting here with Ventura County asking for about a half a million, we’re well over $2 million, and there’s the Forest Service on top of that,” LeMay said. “And we’re talking about two 18-year-old kids and their families. . . .There’s only so much blood you’ll get from a turnip.”

Schwermer and Barrett, both recent Nordhoff High School graduates, pleaded guilty in June to igniting the Dec. 21 blaze, started after they set off illegal fireworks along Koenigstein Road in Upper Ojai.

Nearly 1,600 firefighters from throughout California worked through Christmas to extinguish the flames, at a cost of nearly $3 million. Another $2 million in losses were also recorded, including one home that burned to the ground and hundreds of acres of scorched citrus and avocado groves.

The teens will be in court Thursday for sentencing. Schwermer and Barrett, who is the son of Ojai Police Chief John Barrett, face up to a year in Ventura County Jail. They also face additional fines to repay individual victims who suffered property losses because of the blaze.

Though California Department of Forestry officials won’t seek cash payments, they will ask for some restitution during Thursday’s sentencing. LeMay said he plans to ask the judge to require the boys, as part of their probation, to perform community service for the Fire Department.

“The question here is how do we best serve the public to obtain the best results we can without making these boys destitute for the rest of their lives?” LeMay said. “We’re looking at more of a fire prevention message rather than taking two kids and turning them upside down.”

LeMay said the boys could be asked to speak to other high school students to talk about the damage they caused by playing with illegal fireworks.

“When they see these two just recently graduated kids,” LeMay said, “and they say, ‘This is what happened when we played with one of these things and this is the damage we caused,’ it has a much stronger impact.”

LeMay said the county could ask the court to waive a statute of limitations restriction that limits the department’s ability to file a civil lawsuit in the case to only two years. LeMay said it’s just a precaution in case the boys suddenly come into an inheritance or win a lottery someday.

“Then we would still have a chance to ask for that money,” LeMay said.

County fire authorities, meanwhile, are awaiting a reply from the teens to see how they want to handle the bill they have been sent. If there is no reply in coming weeks, the department will present the matter to the Board of Supervisors to decide whether to file a civil lawsuit, said Sandi Wells, spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

U.S. Forest Service officials said they expect their bill to be sent to both men soon, and that Barrett and Schwermer will have about six months to respond. If they don’t, the Forest Service may also file a civil suit, said Ron Huxman, a spokesman for the department.

Huxman added, however, that his department may ultimately decide to settle for whatever payment they might receive from any existing homeowners insurance policy of the teens’ parents.

“At some point, it does become a moot point to pursue everything,” Huxman said. “But we will start off pursuing the whole thing.”