… who started the Eagle Creek fire that burned 48,831 acres? (See February post.)
The boy, who wasn’t named because he was a juvenile, is the third child of a large immigrant family. His parents fled from Ukraine in 2000 because of religious harassment. The family attends their Russian-speaking Pentecostal church in Vancouver, Washington twice a week.
The youngster was sentenced to 1,920 hours of community service with the U.S. Forest Service and five years of probation. He was also ordered to write letters of apology to everyone impacted by the fire (150+ people) and to pay 36.6 million dollars in restitution. On a payment plan he was to make regular payments over a ten year period. After ten years, if he completed the community service, made the payments on time, committed no other crimes and wrote the letters, the rest of the debt would be waived and the payments would end.
The latest report I could find (2021) said he was making payments on time, had almost completed his community service, had committed no other crimes and had written all the letters. Here is the letter he sent:
“I want to express how sorry I am for what I did. I know a lot of people suffered because of a bad decision that I made. I’m sorry to the first responders who risked their lives to put out the fires, I’m sorry to the hikers that were trapped, I am sorry to the people who worried about their safety and their homes that day, and for weeks afterwards. I am truly sorry about the loss of nature that occurred because of my careless action.
Every day I think about this terrible decision and its awful consequences. Every time I hear people talk about the fire, I put myself down. I know I will have to live with my bad decision for the rest of my life, but I have learned from this experience and will work hard to help rebuild the community in any way that I can. I now realize how important it is to think before acting because my actions can have serious consequences. I, myself, love spending time in nature and I now realize how much work it takes to maintain the National Forest so people can enjoy it. I sincerely apologize to everyone who had to deal with this fire, I cannot imagine how scary it must have. been for you. I know I have to earn your forgiveness and I will work hard to so so and one day, I hope I will. Thank you for giving me a chance to speak. This has been a big learning experience for me and I take it very seriously. I apologize with alnlmyheart to everyone in the Gorge.”