By CATHERINE TSAI
The Associated Press
DENVER — Three insurers who paid out $7.04 million in claims stemming from the worst wildfire in Colorado history are suing the federal government.
The suit, filed Wednesday, claims that the Forest Service was negligent in the 138,000-acre fire, partly because of how it supervised forestry worker Terry Lynn Barton. She started the blaze when she burned a letter in 2002, despite a fire ban she was supposed to be enforcing.
The suit was filed by State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. Inc., Allstate Insurance Co. and three companies that are part of The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.
The government had not been served with the lawsuit as of Thursday afternoon, and could not yet comment on it, spokesman Jeff Dorschner said.
Barton, 42, is serving a six-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a federal charge. She is appealing a concurrent 12-year sentence that was handed down after she pleaded guilty to a state arson charge.
The lawsuit argued that the Forest Service failed to properly train Barton and allowed her to “act alone and unsupervised” before the blaze, which destroyed 133 homes and forced more than 8,000 people to evacuate.
The lawsuit also alleged failure to keep radio dispatch lines available to report the fire and failure to adequately respond to the report.
The Hartford and Allstate paid about 160 claims totaling about $3.51 million while State Farm paid about 150 claims totaling $3.53 million relating to the fire, the lawsuit said.
After a wildfire burned nearly 43,000 acres in 2000 near Los Alamos, N.M., Congress appropriated $455 million for claims by fire victims and their insurers. That fire started as a controlled burn set by the National Park Service.