The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Federal prosecutors have reached a $6.5 million settlement with a Boy Scout chapter in a case involving a wildfire started by campers working on a survival badge.
Insurance policies held by the Great Salt Lake Council through the national office of the Boy Scouts of America will pay for the settlement, council spokesman Kay Godfrey said.
Federal prosecutors had sought more than $13.4 million from the Scouts to cover the costs of the 2002 fire, which burned 22 square miles in the Uinta Mountains. It was started by 17 Scouts ages 12 to 14 at Camp Tomahawk.
“We thought that this was a fair and just settlement,” said Melodie Rydalch, U.S. attorney’s spokeswoman. “Generally a settlement is not everything that everybody wants, it’s a compromise that brings resolution.”
Godfrey declined to comment further and said council leaders planned a formal response Wednesday.
Under a separate settlement with the state of Utah, the national Boy Scouts organization had agreed to pay $330,000 and plant 9,000 seedlings.
No adults were present when the fire was started, although two 15-year-old counselors were in the group.