BLAINE COUNTY — A 41-year-old Rupert man is at the center of a criminal investigation after authorities say he started a wildfire using a flare gun at the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.
The Blaine County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that 41-year-old Daniel C. Jones started the fire on Saturday near the Idaho monument's Bear Trap Lava Tube.
A BLM fire investigator told deputies that Jones had been target shooting in the area with family members when he began using firing flares from a "flare launcher."
One of the flares started a small grass fire, officials said. Jones and his family tried unsuccessfully to put the fire out before calling 911.
Fire crews from the Bureau of Land Management Twin Falls District extinguished the blaze, but not before it burned about 66 acres.
"Everything is tinder dry," Blaine County Sheriff Steve Harkins said. "We ask you to make smart choices about how and where you shoot and which activities you do in the outdoors."
The sheriff's office is conducting the criminal investigation and criminal charges will be sent to the Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
The fire came just days after a Bellevue man confessed to starting the Sharps Fire, which has burned 100 square miles east of Bellevue and Hailey. In that case, authorities say the suspect started the fire using an exploding target.
