A tragedy ends with another tragedy.
By Clarence Williams and Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writers
WASHINGTON –A 64-year-old Northwest Washington man who was charged with causing the largest wildfire in Minnesota in 90 years apparently shot and killed himself yesterday in his back yard.
Stephen G. Posniak, an outdoorsman, retired federal employee and former advisory neighborhood commissioner, died at his home on Windom Place, according to police sources and his lawyer.
The apparent suicide came the day after a federal magistrate judge in Minneapolis denied motions challenging key aspects of the charges filed in the 2007 Ham Lake fire, which burned for days, destroying more than 75,000 acres.
According to the Justice Department, Posniak was charged Oct. 20 in Minneapolis with setting timber afire, leaving a fire unattended and unextinguished, and giving false information to United States Forest Service officers. A trial was to begin next month.
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