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Show 83 lines. Meanwhile, f i r e officials reorganized crevis and supplies which had been taken off the cooling f i r e s , transporting some of the people to Mortar Creek. By the time that fire was f i n a l l y "controlled", which means that it was diminishing inside the f i r e l i n e s , it had burned 65.300 acres of timber and rangeland. Remarkably, in a l l the August fires vihich consumed a t o t a l of 170,000 acres in six Western s t a t e s , before rains put them out or allowed them to be controlled, only one f i r e f i g h t e r lost his l i f e - the man at Ship Island. Many other crew members were injured, mostly with sprained ankles, torn ligaments, and muscle damage. Some of the injuries happened vihen the f i r e ' s violent disruption caused roaks to be dislodged and r o l l down on the crews. One man fought fire for a whole week before he collapsed; doctors discovered that he had a crushed pancreas. A woman f i r e f i g h t e r had to be rushed to medical care vihen she suffered a miscarriage. Half a year l a t e r , in February, I98O, three Idaho men viere charged with starting the Mortar Creek f i r e . A lawsuit filed by the Forest Service claimed that the men had l e f t hot embers in a campfire on July 26, the day the f i r e was f i r s t reported. According to the complaint, they'd built the campfire within a ring of rocks in an area of" dry twigs, pine needles and pine cones, and then l e f t the area, "negligently failing to extinguish the campfire completely, to check the f i r e to ascertain whether it had been extinguished completely, and to take other precautions to prevent re-ignition of the f i r e . " The federal government asked for &5,759.981 in damages from the three men to repay the cost of fighting the Mortar Creek f i r e. |