US Forest Service employee arrested in Oregon over spread of prescribed burn

Unprecedented arrest comes after fire burned 20 acres of private land. Now, experts fear backlash against the wildfire control tool

A US Forest Service employee in Oregon was arrested this week after a prescribed burn in a national forest spread onto private land. It is an unprecedented move that signals an alarming backlash to prescribed burning, a critical tool in wildfire management.

Rick Snodgrass, a burn boss" with the forest service, was overseeing a 300-acre burn in Oregon's Malheur national forest that had been approved by the agency. A spot fire escaped control, according to officials in Grant county and charred roughly 20 acres of private land belonging to Holiday Ranches.