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Federal prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday, hoping to recoup more than $1.6 million from a development group whose excavating operations triggered a wildfire near Alpine in 2012.

The Quail Fire burned about 2,200 acres in Utah County, forcing the evacuation of roughly 500 homes and costing the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies millions in fire-suppression and rehabilitation costs.

It was ignited July 3, 2012, by a track hoe, which was being used to trench a new subdivision.

Federal prosecutors previously investigated the fire for possible criminal violations, but declined to bring charges in 2013.

The civil lawsuit asserts developers, construction engineers and machinery operators failed to take safety precautions to prevent or extinguish a fire — despite area conditions and weather that increased the risks.

"The defendants' acts and omissions recklessly endangered the lives and properties of those in or near the path of the fire as well as the firefighters who suppressed the fire," court papers say.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are five companies and three individuals. The companies include Patterson Construction, a Highland-based developer and homebuilder, Box Elder Properties of Alpine and Autumn View Properties of Highland, which together owned the 10 acres under construction, Sunset Mountain Machinery, an excavation equipment supplier in Highland, and GeoStrata, a Bluffdale-based engineering and construction management firm.

Also named are three individuals who worked for the companies or for their subcontractors, including, Ronald Parker, of Mountain Excavators, Stephen Sowby, of Twin Peaks Engineering and Design, and Jeffery B. Dalton, of Sunset Mountain Machinery.

Sowby and Scott Dunn, of Sunset Mountain Machinery, both declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday. Messages left for the other companies and individuals were not returned.

Court papers allege developers failed to wet or cut down vegetation before using excavation equipment, nor was a water truck placed nearby. Court papers also say workers either did not have a fire extinguisher or had one that was insufficient for suppressing a wildfire.

Prosecutors also contend that equipment operators used an ignition accelerant when the track hoe stalled. That raised the temperature of the engine chamber to a "hotter-than-normal" level.

As an operator was moving the track hoe for refueling, a fire ignited under the machine or immediately adjacent to it, the lawsuit states. Despite efforts to block the fire with a hastily dug earthen berm, the flames quickly burned out of control.

The Quail Fire burned for seven days, mostly on Forest Service land, before it was extinguished. The total cost of fire-suppression efforts were $1,649,440.38, according to court filings.

Beyond those costs, the lawsuit seeks additional damages as deemed appropriate by the court, the document state.