GLENWOOD SPRINGS — A rancher is facing arson charges in connection with the County Road 100 fire that raged outside Carbondale last April, threatening homes and nearly costing one fisherman his life before firefighters corralled the blaze.
Prosecutors accuse Larry Del Gerbaz, of Carbondale, of allowing a slash pile on his property to remain smoldering for days, only to erupt with high winds into a fire that burned across 1,000 acres and left fisherman Larry Garfinkle, who was visiting the area on a fishing trip with friends, with severe burns after he plunged under water to save his life as flames raced overhead.
Gerbaz is charged with one count of felony fourth-degree arson putting a person in danger, and one count of misdemeanor fourth-degree arson putting property in danger. Prosecutors don’t suggest Gerbaz intended to cause any damage, but that his actions damaged homes and put one man’s life at risk.
The case highlights the Roaring Fork Valley’s changing landscape and lifestyle. Gerbaz is part of one of the Roaring Fork Valley’s historic ranching families. The practice of slash burning is a historic use on open ranch land, but one increasingly at odds with a growing number of homes and recreationists.
“We’re in changing times,” Deputy District Attorney Jeff Cheney said. Cheney said the case might be precedent-setting, as he has been unable to find a similar case in Colorado law. Cheney considered the evidence for about three months before deciding that state law allows him to pursue arson in the case.
“You can look in Carbondale where this fire started and ask yourself, ‘Would this risk have been present 25 years ago? No,’” Cheney said.
Carbondale Fire Chief Ron Leach said he isn’t interested in blaming Gerbaz or any other individual, but he welcomes the investigation. Leach had promised a thorough investigation of the blaze.
“I’m just pleased the investigation will go forward and the public will get answers to what happened out there that day,” he said.
Gerbaz has not been arrested. He was instead issued a rare felony summons to appear in court on Wednesday to be advised of the charges. In a plaid ranch shirt and Levis, Gerbaz appeared beside his attorney, Tom Silverman, of Glenwood Springs.
The fire erupted on April 15, pushed by wind gusts exceeding 50 mph. Four homes were damaged, more than 100 more were threatened and hundreds of residents were evacuated. More than 150 firefighters and other personnel from 47 different agencies responded.
Investigators believe the blaze started with a burning slash pile on Gerbaz’s property that might have been smoldering for three days before winds whipped the flames out of control. Leach said his office had issued not any burn permits, but it is not clear that burn permits were required. Instead, residents are asked to comply voluntarily.
Leach said burn permits would not have been issued the day of the fire because of the red flag warning of high winds. He said his agency likely would have issued a permit for three days before the blaze, though, when the slash piles were believed to have been burned, but officials would have asked that any fires be extinguished by the end of the day.
Sheriff’s investigators said witnesses reported seeing the fire start on Gerbaz’s property, and a distinct burn pattern spread eastward from his pasture, where there were several burned slash piles.
In interviews with investigators, Gerbaz reportedly said he had burned the pile on Saturday, three days before the County Road 100 fire, and “there was nothing left of the burn when (he) left town” on Tuesday. He said he had cleared a fire break before igniting the fire, wet down another pile to keep it from burning, and refrained from burning larger cottonwood trees in an effort to prevent a fire danger. He allegedly suggested the fire had burned from the east, but investigators say the burn pattern and wind direction made that unlikely.
Gerbaz reportedly told investigators two other people were burning on their properties at the time of the fire. His attorney has declined to discuss the case.
“We need to look and see what their reasons are for believing the matter should be charged, and I don’t have that,” Silverman said. He said he knew of no similar cases having been filed in the area.
Cheney said he could find no similar case in Colorado law, but he decided to file charges after he became convinced by another case that Colorado law allows a finding of arson even if the suspect did not intend to cause harm.
“I think it could be potentially precedent-setting,” he said, “but the law was clear in my view that it doesn’t matter if the person intended to cause bodily harm. It matters if the person intended to start the fire.”
Cheney added that if ranchers start fires, they need to maintain them responsibly, and should obtain burn permits. “I grew up on a farm,” the prosecutor said. “I understand the necessity of certain things that have to be done to maintain a ranch or a farm as well (as) or better than most people.”
A longtime staple of ranch life, open burning is becoming more controversial, Leach said, as more people build homes in rural areas. On the same day as the County Road 100 fire, two firefighters were killed near the town of Ordway, Colo., responding to an open burn that went out of control.
“People are starting to get hurt out there,” Cheney noted. “We’ve seen damage to people’s roofs and property. It’s a changing culture. There’s an air quality aspect to this. With the changing culture, there’s health issues to open burning. People have a right to breathe clean air. All of these pressures on the community need to be balanced against the historical, in many ways legitimate, use of open burning in pursuit of cattle ranching and raising hay.”
Gerbaz remains free, but has been ordered to be fingerprinted and return to court on Sept. 11. District Judge Gail Nichols has disqualified herself because of a potential conflict of interest. She was a deputy district attorney in Aspen at the time of the fire.
dfrey@aspendailynews.com
