Man gets three months of jail time for starting fire in Yellowstone National Park
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MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyoming — A Yellowstone National Park employee will spend three months in jail for dropping a cigarette that started a fire near the north entrance to the park last month.
Park officials say Curtis J Faustich, a seasonal concessionaire employee was sitting at a picnic table near the park entrance on July 26. He failed to extinguish a cigarette on the ground, which led to a fire which burned approximately four acres of brush between the North Entrance Station and the Gardner River.
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Following an investigation, Faustich admitted to the crime and appeared in court at the Yellowstone Justice Center in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming on Tuesday.
Faustich pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced. In addition to the three months in jail, Faustich must also pay $5,000 in restitution, be on unsupervised probation for two years, and he is prohibited from entering Yellowstone National Park for two years.
Park officials say individuals called the park’s 24-hour tip line to give information about the incident, which led to the charges against Faustich, according to a park news release.