Hayman Fire starter released from prison
Story By: Bea Karnes
Source: AP
Terry Lynn Barton has been released from prison after serving a six-year term for starting the worst wildfire in Colorado history. Federal prison officials in Fort Worth, Texas, said Barton was released today.
Barton, 44, pleaded guilty to arson charges stemming from the 2002 Hayman Fire, which blackened 138,000 acres, destroyed 133 homes and forced more than 8,000 people to evacuate. She was a fire spotter for the U.S. Forest Service at the time and originally claimed she had found an illegal campfire and tried to extinguish it. She later admitted setting the fire by burning a letter from her estranged husband.
She has been ordered to pay $42.2 million in state and federal restitution. Her attorney did not immediately return a call.
