18 U.S.C. § 1855
Section 1855 · Timber set afire
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 26 court decisions — leading case United States v. DeLuna (1985)
Most recently applied in United States v. Casey Evans (July 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever, willfully and without authority, sets on fire any timber, underbrush, or grass or other inflammable material upon the public domain or upon any lands owned or leased by or under the partial, concurrent, or exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, or under contract for purchase or for the acquisition of which condemnation proceedings have been instituted, or upon any Indian reservation or lands belonging to or occupied by any tribe or group of Indians under authority of the United States, or upon any Indian allotment while the title to the same shall be held in trust by the Government, or while the same shall remain inalienable by the allottee without the consent of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
This section shall not apply in the case of a fire set by an allottee in the reasonable exercise of his proprietary rights in the allotment.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §106 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §52, 35 Stat. 1098; Nov. 15, 1941, ch. 472, §1, 55 Stat. 763).
Surplus verbiage and unnecessary enumerations were omitted.
Words “without authority” were inserted near beginning of section so as to remove any doubt as to scope or meaning of section.
Reference to persons causing or procuring was omitted as unnecessary in view of definition of “principal” in section 2 of this title.
Minor verbal changes were made.
Amendments
1988—Pub. L. 100–690 substituted “under this title” for “not more than $5,000” in first par.
Cross References
Protection against fires, see section 594 of Title 16, Conservation.