STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTO BY TREY SPAULDING

A 35-year-old Bellevue man who has been identified as starting the Sharps Fire has been charged with a misdemeanor.

Ryan M. Jensen, 35, Jensen voluntarily came to the sheriff’s office on Wednesday, Aug. 1, and confessed to starting the fire by using an exploding target.

Jensen initially came to the attention of the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office when he reported the fire at 11:15 a.m. Sunday.

Jensen told police he was driving out Muldoon Canyon when he spotted the fire. He told detectives that he initially attempted to put the fire out but then drove back to town to report the blaze.

He repeatedly denied shooting weapons or using exploding targets.

Through the course of the investigation detectives met with Jensen multiple times. And detectives began to focus on Jensen as their primary suspect as evidence, other leads and interviews with witnesses began to stack up.

On Thursday, Jensen was summoned into court by the Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for the crime of firing timber or prairie land, Idaho Code 18-7004.

The statue says that anyone who willfully or carelessly causes a fire on prairie or timber lands, destroying the timber grass or grain is guilty of a misdemeanor. The statute applies to any person who builds a campfire in the woods or on the prairie and leaves without totally extinguishing it, as well.

Blaine County Sheriff Steve Harkins commended the interagency cooperation with the Idaho Department of Lands, as well as the work of detectives and investigators.

“I would also like to thank the citizens for their involvement and willingness to help detectives with leads and information, which is often critical to our success in solving these crimes,” he added.

The Sharps Fire is the second fire started in the Muldoon Canyon area by someone using an explosive target in a year. A suspect in the 2017 Martin Canyon Fire was never identified.

The use of explosive targets on public land is illegal.