Mormon Church Added to Lawsuit on 2002 Fire

The Justice Department and the state of Utah added the Mormon church as a defendant in a nearly $14-million lawsuit seeking to recover the costs of fighting a forest fire that began at a Boy Scout camp.

The government claims boys from a church-sponsored Boy Scout troop carelessly started the fire that burned 14,000 acres of federal and state land in the Uinta Mountains in 2002. Boy Scout officials have said it was possible that all-terrain vehicle riders were to blame for the fire.