SPOKANE, Wash. —
Every fire starts with a spark. How a spark gets its start may not be such an obvious fact.
"What kicked it off, that’s the hard work our investigators are doing,” Washington Department of Natural Resources deputy communications director Joe Smillie said, in reference to the Oregon Road Fire burning near Elk.
Tuesday, fire officials confirmed the deadly fire was human-caused. Smillie said investigators came to that determination by ruling out natural causes, like lightning.
"Basically if there wasn’t lightning in the area at the time, it was probably human-caused," Smillie explained. "That doesn’t necessarily mean arson, it could, but roughly 90% of Washington fires are human-caused.”
Smillie said of the 90% of human-caused, Washington fires, about 50% are intentionally or negligently-caused.
He said the other 40% of human-caused fires can be started in a number of ways.
"It can be a debris pile that got away from somebody, a railroad can spark a fire, chains dragging on the side of a highway can start a fire, farming," Smillie rattled off.
The Babb Road fire is an example of a destructive, human-caused fire that wasn’t arson.
The fire destroyed most of Malden and Pine City back in 2020.
The fire began after a tree branch fell on a powerline.
Its start was considered human-caused because Avista was responsible for maintaining the trees near the powerline and it did not.
Smillie said these key details in the Oregon Road fire's origin story are still under investigation. At this time, he could not share additional information on how exactly flames started.
He said it could take days or weeks to come to full understanding of exactly what sparked the fire.
He said investigators are assessing the area around where the fire started and interviewing neighbors on what they may have seen or heard.
The Northeast region Department of Natural Resources and Spokane Conversation District is hosting a post-fire recovery assistance meeting for those living in Elk Thursday, Sept. 7.
The meeting begins at 5:30pm at Riverside High School in Chattaroy.
Topics covered will include assistance programs, reforestation and assessing tree survivability, forest practices and regulations and salvage logging.
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