A Colorado man was charged with arson in connection to a wildfire that destroyed 29 homes from late July to mid-August, authorities said on Wednesday.
Jason Alexander Hobby, 49, showed up in court on Wednesday on a first-degree arson charge for a fire that was started on July 29 on Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch—located west of Loveland, which is about an hour’s drive north of Denver—where he worked. Police arrested Hobby on Tuesday, according to Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen. Hobby was fired from his job after he became a suspect in the fire, Feyen said.
The fire, known as the Alexander Mountain Fire, escaped a fire ring on the guest ranch, Feyen said, and burned through about 15 square miles of land before it was contained on August 17. There was over $30 million in property damage, according to authorities, and it cost over $11 million to put out the fire, District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin told the court.
Feyer could not say whether the fire was accidental or intentional as the investigation remains ongoing.
Newsweek reached out to Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch via email for comment on Wednesday evening.
Flames consume trees as the Alexander Mountain Fire burns near Sylvan Dale Ranch, July 30, 2024, west of Loveland, Colorado. A Colorado man was charged with arson in connection to a wildfire that destroyed 29 homes from late July to mid-August, authorities said on Wednesday.
Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP
Hobby is also charged with two misdemeanor counts of impersonating a public official. He allegedly used a pickup truck made to look like a wildland firefighter truck to get past checkpoints during the fire, according to Feyen.
The man also allegedly stopped travelers on the guest ranch while driving an SUV made to look like a police vehicle. He is accused of representing himself as law enforcement, falsely telling people they were trespassing and pointing a firearm at them, according to investigators.
Feyen said these stops happened in the “weeks and months” before the fire and that law enforcement became aware of these incidents during the fire investigation. Hobby is also charged with impersonating a police officer, menacing and false imprisonment relating to the incidents.
Hobby’s bail was initially set at $250,000 but it is now $450,000.
DA McLaughlin asked for his bail to be increased to $1 million cash, saying he was concerned Hobby might flee the area and that he is being investigated for fires set in Wyoming. Details about those fires are currently unknown to the public. A public defender, meanwhile, tried to keep Hobby’s bail at $250,000, saying that his client had his own business and lived in Loveland with his wife.
Hobby will be in court again on September 24.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
