Terrifying wildfire that captured north of Sacramento on 2000 seems to have been caused by crews of Union Pacific who repaired the road in Feather River Canyon, a part of Plumas National Forest. 

A new settlement regarding these kinds of accidents was released on Tuesday. This increases the punishments for those responsible in creating the fire in the forests. Once with this settlement, the Union Pacific Railroad Co. had to pay $102 million to the U.S. Forest Service.

Officials handling this issue have stated that Union Pacific damaged the wildlife, the habitat and the environmental uses, besides of the fact it had created a devastating fire. This must arrest the attention of those who spark a fire, even by accident.

Railroad repairs on August 17, 2000 led five workers of Union Pacific create a terrible fire, only by using power tools. The little pieces of metal that were used by the crew created a blaze that burnt 52,000 acres in Plumas and Lassen national forests for more than three weeks.

2,500 firefighters tried to stop the fire and at the same time fought to have no loss of life or damaged buildings. This cost the U.S. Forest Service no more than $22 million. And that was only firefighters’ work, not the damage already made to the environment.

After the fire was stopped and no danger threatened the forests, $80 million were used to restore landscapes and repair ecological damages, which consisted of replanted trees, trails and roads improvements.

$35 million were already paid by July 2. The next payment is scheduled for August 15 and the last money will be given on October 15. New Fire Recovery Teams were formed in Utah and California, as to prevent future fires and quickly stop the new ones.