{"id":20144,"date":"2019-11-15T09:04:20","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T16:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=61223"},"modified":"2019-11-18T08:15:49","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T15:15:49","slug":"kremmling-man-faces-arson-charge-after-series-of-inappropriate-burns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/kremmling-man-faces-arson-charge-after-series-of-inappropriate-burns\/","title":{"rendered":"Kremmling man faces arson charge after series of inappropriate burns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The entrance to Gorewood Estates with a sign reminding residents to make sure they can put out any fires they start.<\/strong>
McKenna Harford \/ mharford@skyhinews.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When visitors pull up to the gated entrance of Gorewood Estates, they are greeted by a bright orange notice that reads: \u201cBefore you light it, make sure you\u2019re ready to fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents of the neighborhood roughly eight miles west of Kremmling say they are often on edge about wildfire danger, especially when they see the chain unhooked at the first driveway on the right.<\/p>\n

That usually signals the property owner, Christopher Linsmayer, is home. Linsmayer, a Silverthorne resident and husband of Denver District Attorney Beth McCann, has repeatedly been accused of violating county ordinances by burning slash piles on private property over the past three years.<\/p>\n

Most recently, an Aug. 23 incident in which Linsmayer burned a slash pile out of season on a Red Flag warning day prompted the 14th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office to charge him with fourth degree arson. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe backing on that would be he\u2019s been issued three code violations, I believe, and it doesn\u2019t seem like those are deterring him at all,\u201d said Lt. Dan Mayer, spokesman for the Grand County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Mayer added that in his eight years in Grand County, he has only seen a handful of other cases where locals were charged with arson for a county ordinance violation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not common, but it is appropriate,\u201d Mayer said.<\/p>\n

Reached on Thursday, Linsmayer\u2019s attorney, Jack DiCola, said he didn\u2019t want to comment on an ongoing case.<\/p>\n

Linsmayer\u2019s history with lighting fires in the county goes back to at least 2016, when a 10 acre wildfire, known as the Gore Ridge Fire<\/a>, started on Linsmayer\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
In this file photo from September 2016 a firefighter works to clear downed trees and other debris from the Gore Ridge Fire burn scar, which started on the property owned by Christopher Linsmayer.<\/strong>
Sky-Hi News file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

An investigation of the Gore Ridge Fire revealed that Linsmayer had been burning three or four slash piles that were larger than allowed. Linsmayer was not cited for the wildfire, but he did agree to pay Grand County roughly $190,000 for fire suppression efforts and restitution to his neighbor, Henry Meier.<\/p>\n

According to the sheriff\u2019s office, Linsmayer was cited for a county ordinance violation on Nov. 1, 2016<\/a>. Other reports of inappropriate burning were filed on April 7, 2017, and on Sept. 16, 2017, but Linsmayer was not cited.<\/p>\n

The September 2017 police report obtained by the Sky-Hi News describes three fires burning on Linsmayer\u2019s property, each with a bucket of water sitting next to it and a shovel. The county ordinance only allows a single campfire at a time.<\/p>\n

At the time, Linsmayer claimed that \u201che was able to manage all three\u201d even after the responding officer expressed concerns about \u201chim being one person attempting to manage all three fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

That report was reviewed by the district attorney\u2019s office, which declined to move forward with the case because the DA\u2019s office felt it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. <\/p>\n

While county officials are hopeful the arson charge will encourage Linsmayer to obey county fire ordinances, his neighbors aren\u2019t as sure it will change his behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this one is going to stop him or slow him down either,\u201d said Steve Miller, one of Linsmayer\u2019s neighbors. \u201cI\u2019ve tried talking to him, and I know other people have, and you might as well talk to a tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller said he has left information about fire safety and mitigation programs for Linsmayer. Other neighbors describe their efforts to inform him of free chipping days in the county and logging options, but Meier said that Linsmayer\u2019s \u201ccareless\u201d attitude toward fire continues even after the 2016 Gore Ridge Fire, which caused over $100,000 in damage to Meier\u2019s land.<\/p>\n

\u201cEight acres of mature forest were completely incinerated,\u201d Meier explained. \u201cIt was devastating \u2026 It\u2019s greatly diminished the enjoyment of my property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meier estimates Linsmayer has flouted the fire ordinance roughly 10 different times over the past five years.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
A slash pile sits at the intersection of Linsmayer\u2019s driveway and the only road in the Gorewood Estates neighborhood.<\/strong>
McKenna Harford \/ mharford@skyhinews.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The location of Linsmayer\u2019s property adds extra risk because there is no water source on the lot, and the neighborhood is not a part of a fire district, so residents have to call the sheriff first, who then calls for fire crew response.<\/p>\n

It also sits at the entrance of the single-road neighborhood, which is several miles west of Kremmling near the Grand River Ranch. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come up to the gate, we\u2019ve come home on a Friday night and seen seven fires going in the dark and we stop there and think do we go in or do we turn around and go back to Denver,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Linsmayer\u2019s arraignment is set for 9 a.m. Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The entrance to Gorewood Estates with a sign reminding residents to make sure they can put out any fires they start.McKenna Harford \/ mharford@skyhinews.com When visitors pull up to the gated entrance of Gorewood Estates, they are greeted by a bright orange notice that reads: \u201cBefore you light it, make sure you\u2019re ready to fight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 20:37:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20174,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20144\/revisions\/20174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}