Hunter charged with sparking massive Rim fire, state's third-largest

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A view of the burned area near Granite Creek in the Stanislaus National Forest. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Tourists at the Rim of the World vista point near Yosemite National Park look out at an area burned by the Rim fire -- thus its name. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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The burnt white bark of an oak tree stands out from the predominantly black charred bark of surrounding pine trees in the Stanislaus National Forest. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Samples collected in a portable sieve by scientist Curtis Kvamme determine the soil composition from a burned area in the Stanislaus National Forest. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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The new green shoot of a fern springs up from the charred ground in the burned area of the Stanislaus National Forest near Tuolumne, Calif. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Todd J. Ellsworth is a U.S. Forest Service watershed manager who oversaw the post-fire survey known as Burned Area Emergency Response. His team collected data in the burn area near Yosemite to gauge environmental damage from the Rim fire. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Burned trees make for a stark landscape in the Granite Creek drainage area of the Stanislaus National Forest. Where large patches of trees were killed, ecologists say it could take 30 to 50 years for the forest to reestablish itself. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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A wide view of the burned area from Cherry Lake Road in the Stanislaus National Forest near Tuolumne shows virtually no greenery. Remote sensing satellite images indicate that virtually all of the vegetation is dead on nearly 40% of the area of the 401-square-mile blaze. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Soil scientists Curtis Kvamme, left, and Kellen Takenaka of the Forest Service gather data in the burned area of the Stanislaus National Forest near Tuolumne. A U.S. Forest Service team recently surveyed the area to gauge environmental damage from the Rim fire. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Sap drips through the burned bark of a ponderosa pine in the Rim fire burn area. ¿You¿re looking at a huge area that doesn¿t have any living conifers,¿ said Hugh Safford, regional ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

By Kate Mather

Aug. 7, 2014 2:46 PM PT

A federal grand jury Thursday indicted a 32-year-old hunter with starting a campfire last year that spread to become the Rim fire, which scorched more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park.

It became the third-largest blaze in state history.

Keith Matthew Emerald of Columbia, Calif., was charged with two felonies -- setting timber afire and lying to a government agent -- and two misdemeanors -- violating a fire restriction order and leaving a fire unattended and unextinguished -- the U.S. attorney’s office announced Thursday.

The felony counts each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, prosecutors said, and the misdemeanor counts a maximum of six months each.

The Rim fire began Aug. 17, 2013, in a remote area of the Stainislaus National Forest and spread into Yosemite National Park. Ten people were injured and more than 100 structures were burned in addition to significant environmental damage during the nine-week firefight, whose cost topped $125 million.

“The Rim fire was one of the largest in California history and caused tremendous economic and environmental harm,” U.S. Atty. Benjamin B. Wagner said in a statement. “While those harms cannot be undone, today we have brought criminal charges relating to the cause of that fire.”

Prosecutors allege Emerald, who was on a bow-hunting trip, ignored the temporary fire restrictions that were in place and kindled a fire in the Stanislaus National Forest. At some point the fire spread beyond his control, they said.

Emerald was rescued by a helicopter crew about an hour after the fire was reported, prosecutors said.

Six days later, as the fire raged, federal investigators went to Emerald’s home, according to an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant. There, according to the document, Emerald told investigators “he caused a rock slide that he believed ignited the Rim fire.”

“Emerald said as the boulder rolled downslope, he could hear it striking other rocks and smelled a ‘rotten egg’ type odor that he thought was ‘sulfur,’” investigators wrote. “Emerald told us he continued to walk along the hillside for approximately five to ten minutes when he smelled smoke.”

But during a later interview, investigators said Emerald told them “he felt the fire could have been caused by marijuana growers,” noting he had seen grow operations in the area. He told investigators he thought marijuana growers had seen him hiking, and may have started the fire after that.

“This appeared to contradict his initial statement that Emerald caused a rock slide which then started the fire,” the affidavit read.

But investigators found no signs of a grow operation near the fire’s origin, according to the affidavit, and no indication there was a rock slide. The conclusion, they said, was that a human had caused the blaze.

During a third interview in early September, Emerald told investigators he was afraid of retaliation from the community and asked if his name could be kept out of the media “until snow falls.” (Authorities did not release his name until Thursday.)

In a signed affidavit, Emerald wrote that he used pine needles, twigs and a lighter to start a campfire.

“After cooking a meal and burning the rest of my trash, some embers were blown up the hill and caught the brush on fire,” he wrote. “The terrain was almost vertical, so I phisically [sic] couldn’t put it out.”

Emerald had not been arrested and no court date had been set as of Thursday afternoon, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Follow @katemather for more crime news from across California.