July 2 (UPI) — A 52-year-old Danish man was charged with arson Sunday after allegedly starting a wildfire that destroyed more than 40,000 acres in Southern Colorado, officials said.
Jesper Joergensen was arrested by Costilla County deputies on Saturday. The investigation into the fire is ongoing but “information on this matter is limited,” the Costilla County Sheriff’s Office said.
The CCSO confirmed that the fire was “human caused” but don’t believe it was intentional.
“As far as we know, he didn’t do it on purpose,” a CCSO official told the Denver Post.
CBS 4-TV reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed Joergensen on an immigration detainer, which are placed “on deportable aliens arrested and detained on criminal charges.”
The fire began Wednesday and was only 5 percent contained as of Sunday evening.
The damage caused by the fire has not been estimated yet, but several structures have been burned and more than 2,000 homes were evacuated and nearly 500 firefighters are working to contain the blaze.
“It’s a very challenging fire, I’ll be honest with you, with all the wind changes,” Shane Greer, an incident commander told residents on Sunday, The New York Times reported. “We haven’t been able to chase this because it keeps going in at least three different directions. Every time we turn around, it switches and moves.”
There are currently 12 wildfires in Colorado, affecting more than 150,000 acres across the state.
