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Man charged with arson in big wildfire Fighting Brookings-area blaze expected to cost $6 million BROOKINGS -- A Harbor man has been charged with arson in the 2,000-acre Repeater Fire in the Siskiyou National Forest which has cost the Forest Service more than $5 million to suppress. Willard E. Berry, 51, was arrested Friday after an investigation by local, state and federal officials. Lodged in the Curry County Jail, Berry has been charged with five counts of first-degree arson. Under state Measure 11, passed in 1994, each offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 90 months. The cost of battling the fire, which was contained by fire lines Thursday, is already at $5.2 million but is estimated to climb to some $6 million before the last ember is snuffed out, according to forest officials. The largest wildfire in Southern Oregon this year, the fire was first reported Oct. 4. Before it was contained, it threatened several homes as well as some of the few redwood trees growing in Oregon. "The potential loss to lives, property and resources was significant," said Mark Tarantino, the Forest Service officer in charge of enforcing laws on the Siskiyou, Rogue River and Umpqua national forests. The fire also socked in the Rogue and Applegate valleys with heavy smoke earlier this week. The fire is on Mount Emily, best known as the site where a submarine-launched Japanese plane dropped incendiary bombs during World War II. It was named for a radio repeater tower located on the mountain. Aided by higher humidity and cooler temperatures, firefighters continue to gain on the fire, according to Mary Stansell, a fire information officer with the Siskiyou forest. Hand crews will continue to work the perimeter of the fire, looking for hot spots, she said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA