Court: Multiple Fires = Multiple Fines

RALEIGH — Regulatory agencies are allowed discretion in how they interpret the laws under which they operate. Such discretion has its limits, though, and exactly that point was at issue in a case decided by the N.C. Court of Appeals on July 5. At issue was whether state regulators could fine a repeat violator for individual fires he set too near a building when the agency had previous treated multiple fires as a single violation.