Party accident revealing sex leaves border officer to guilt for wildfires: NPR

When Dennis Dickey lined up his rifle, he was ready to be surprised. After all, it's the purpose of a party that reveals the differences between the sexes, and Dickey's inanimate target was ready to give him his unpredictable response from the moment he was fired. But it was not the sex of his child who was going to offer the biggest bombshell of his family last year.

This distinction goes to the forest fire that it began.

The 37-year-old border police officer pleaded guilty Friday for breaking the rules of the US Forest Service and triggering a fire at the sawmill near Tucson, Arizona, while he was not on duty.

"Dickey had placed the Tannerite, a highly explosive substance, inside the target, with the intention of detonating it when it is hit by a high-speed bullet," the US military office said. Arizona in a statement.

Tannerite is a brand explosive powder. "When shot with a high-powered rifle," the company says on its website, "it produces water vapor and a thunderbolt." And the company even sells a $ 85 package that offers "everything you need to reveal your gender," including pink or blue powder.

The colors that ended up dominating the day were orange and red.

"Dickey fired shots at the Tannerite target," the federal authorities continued, causing an explosion that ignited a fire that damaged more than 45,000 acres of state-run land. Arizona, the US Forest Service Land Management, and various private landowners ".

He "immediately reported the fire to law enforcement, cooperated and admitted that he had unleashed the fire," said Forest Service Officer Brent Robinson at a filing in Federal Court last month. He added that the explosion had been "filmed by a witness".

Yet, so quickly that Dickey has alerted the authorities, hell has moved faster.

Some 800 firefighters managed to have it contained about two weeks later, the cost of the fire rising to more than $ 8 million – costs that Dickey has now agreed to pay back, according to the report. American lawyer.

We still do not know if he is up to the total amount. Local media, quoting Dickey's attorney, report that, with plea, he has agreed to pay $ 100,000 in advance and an additional $ 120,000 in monthly installments over the next two decades, in assuming that his income does not increase significantly during this period.

In addition, Dickey would be on probation for five years and would appear in a public service announcement of the Forest Service if the judge agreed to the terms of the agreement with prosecutors.

"It was a complete accident," he told the court, according to the Arizona Daily Star. "I feel absolutely horrible about it – it was probably one of the worst days of my life."