A former Utah Highway Patrol trooper has been charged with arson in the Maeser Highway Fire that started on June 9th and burned over 2,500 acres. The Utah Attorney General’s Office charged Rex Richard Olsen with one count of Second-Degree Felony Arson as well as a second charge under Wildland Fire Prevention – Prohibited Acts, a class B misdemeanor. According to the charging document, Rex Olsen, who was a trooper at the time of starting the fire, “placed a lighted cigarette with matches just off the shoulder of a highway right of way that he knew or should have known would cause a wildland fire.” According to the investigator’s probable cause statement, physical evidence was collected consisting of a burned cigarette and match combination. “Based on training and experience, I knew this to be a delayed ignition device constructed to ignite a fire using the cigarette as a timed fuse,” shares J. Curry of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. Curry located and reviewed video evidence at a local gas station that showed Rex Olsen purchasing the type of cigarette used at the scene to start the fire. GPS based location data from Rex Olsen’s patrol car also showed that Olsen was in the area where the fire began at the time the ignition device was placed and the fire was started. When interviewed, Olsen stated that “he alone was the person responsible for intentionally igniting the Maeser fire on June 9th, and that he did so because he wanted to feel the excitement of it.” The damage caused to property, land and the expense of responding to and suppressing the fire is more than $800,000 dollars. The fire was more than a scare for many citizens with the Yellow Hills Subdivision evacuated and other neighborhoods put on evacuation watch. Strong winds made the blaze unpredictable and all local resources as well as state, BLM, Forest Service, and BIA were on hand to protect the in danger homes. The charges against Rex Olsen were filed on Tuesday, August 8th.
