The two Anchorage residents accused of sparking the 7,220-acre Sockeye Fire that destroyed dozens of homes have both entered a not guilty plea.
Greg Imig, 59, and Amy Dewitt, 42, waived their arraignment in Palmer court Tuesday morning and instead both entered a plea of not guilty through their attorneys.
The fire, which started north of Willow in June, destroyed 55 homes and damaged 44 other structures, officials say.
Court documents say they did not have a required burn permit. The pair burned brush piles at their cabin near Mile 77 of the Parks Highway and didn’t extinguish the piles. Instead, they left them unattended.
The cost in resources related to the fire reached more than $8 million, according to an earlier report.
A pretrial conference has been set for Aug. 21. The trial is tentatively slated for Sept. 24.
The Palmer District Attorney’s office wants fire victims to contact them so they can get a better idea of how much restitution to ask for.
There is a form victims need to fill out, which they can get at the Palmer courthouse or by calling Sherese Miller with the DA’s office at 907-761-5648.
“If we can get the information out to everybody, if we can have them coming in to the DA’s office, filling out the form, getting it back to me, this is going to be a huge step in making sure we’re able to at least make attempts to make all our victims whole again,” Miller said.
–Lauren Maxwell contributed reporting.
