Former Utah fire chief pleads guilty to starting wildfire

A former Utah Highway Patrol trooper and fire chief on Tuesday pleaded guilty to intentionally starting a wildfire in northeastern Utah this summer — the second wildfire he has been indicted for this year. Rex Richard Olsen, 37, pleaded guilty to starting a fire on June 9 that burned roughly 1,000 acres of sagebrush and grass near the town of Maeser, about 30 miles away from his own home in Roosevelt.The blaze forced a subdivision of Maeser to evacuate, and temporarily shut down State Rout