Investigators determined a rotting tree that fell onto a power line sparked what would quickly become one of the largest fires in New Mexico's recorded history.
Attorneys are scheduled to make opening statements Thursday in state district court in a case that will answer whether two electric utility companies should be held liable.
The trial is expected to last six weeks.
The Las Conchas blaze started June 26, 2011. It scorched more than 240 square miles of tinder-dry forest, destroyed dozens of homes, threatened one of the nation's premier government laboratories and blackened nearly two-thirds of Bandelier National Monument along with areas held sacred by Native American tribes.
There are more than 300 plaintiffs in the case, which consolidates several lawsuits filed in the wake of the fire.
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