DOT seeks $1.4 million for losses in fire that shut down I-29

July 31--The North Dakota Department of Transportation is seeking to recover $1.4 million worth of fencing lost in the grass fires that ignited along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 29 north of Grand Forks in April.

The insurance claim will be submitted against Coast to Coast Trucking, out of Chicago, the company whose employee is thought to have unwittingly started the grass fires along his truck route, according to Jamie Olson, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation.

Olson said the $1.4 million estimate is mostly attributable to burned fencing along the interstate, but also to tree removal costs.

The grass fires ignited on April 15 along North Dakota Highway 5 and Interstate 29 from Drayton, N.D., to Grand Forks during a statewide burn ban. The blazes temporarily shut down the interstate and sent clouds of smoke billowing across the highway, which reduced visibility to zero in certain places and caused a 10-car pileup near the Oslo, Minn., interchange in which eight people were injured, some critically.

The fires also threatened homes and other structures along the interstate and summoned a massive response from more than a dozen fire departments in northeastern North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota and Manitoba.

North Dakota Highway Patrol troopers suspect the grass fires were caused by a semi truck, driven by Mehmet Demir, 31, of Miami Beach, Fla., from which burning pieces of coal were blowing onto the highway.

Patrol troopers believe the coal in a conveyor on the back of the semi was ignited when a piece of the conveyor was cut off with a blowtorch prior to the semi traveling to Walhalla, N.D. The ignited coal then blew out of the conveyor along the truck's route, leaving a fiery trail in its wake from Walhalla to Grand Forks, where a trooper pulled the truck over, according to a Highway Patrol report.

The state's attorneys in Grand Forks, Pembina and Walsh counties recently decided not to press charges against the truck driver because there was no charge to fit the crime, said Grand Forks County State's Attorney David Jones.

For any of the possible charges, the state would have had to prove Demir knew about the fires.

"When he was stopped by the Highway Patrol, all the indicators we had ... were he was oblivious to what was going on," Jones said.

Jones said the Oslo accident victims could file a civil lawsuit against the driver. An online search of district court filings did not show any civil lawsuits filed against either the truck driver or the trucking company.

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