Idaho Company Repays Government for Costs of 2010 Blaze

Federal prosecutors say they have collected $270,000 as part of a legal settlement with an Idaho company over costs of battling a wildfire in 2010.

U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson says the sum paid by Sunroc Construction Co. helps defray the costs of suppressing a fire that started in August and burned more than 13,000 acres on the Idaho National Laboratory.

Investigators say the blaze ignited when an overheated joint detached from one of the Idaho Falls company’s dump trucks and rolled off U.S. Highway 26 and into nearby grasses.

More than $200,000 of the settlement sum will be directed to future fire suppression efforts.