Suspect Indentified In Beaver Creek Fire, Investigation Continues

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - Investigators say they know who the man is who is suspected of starting the Beaver Creek Fire that burned in the Pike National Forest last month.

The Beaver Creek Fire started on Aug. 19 and burned about 100 acres near the U.S. Air Force Academy. It started as a single plume of smoke, but soon afterwards there were several columns of smoke spaced evenly apart.

"I thought (it was) man-made, simply because that afternoon there were no lightning strikes or anything like that," one resident told CBS4.

A change in the weather helped firefighters battling the blaze and it was controlled before it reached homes nearby.

At about the time the fire broke out court documents indicate a man was spotted in the area. He was "crouching down in thick vegetation as if to avoid detection." The next day, a man emerged from the woods begging for water.

The man told investigators he had been on a nature hike in the mountains and had gotten lost and confused and was there for three days. He said that when he saw a fire break out he took cover in the rocks.

His clothing had multiple liquid-like stains, soot marks and small burn holes, according to a search warrant request. It stated the man claimed he had been driving down Interstate 25 from Denver to Colorado Springs and was running out of gas.

The story is strange in nature because the man would have to have driven right past a gas station and then driven several miles into the mountains.

The man was taken custody on the land owned by Dr. Jay Campbell.

Campbell told CBS4 he's disturbed to hear the fire may have been set intentionally.

"I'm angry to know that someone would deliberately destroy something like that without taking into account the damages that occured."

The suspect is named in court documents but so far he hasn't been charged. The U.S. Forest Service says their investigation is ongoing.