The Carpenter Road fire is the single biggest disaster to hit Stevens County.
The fire racked up $20 million in damages after ripping through 45,000 acres of county land and another 20,000 acres on reservation land. A total of 42 structures burned, including 18 homes. One man died of a heart attack while trying to escape the flames.
"You get 100 fires and 99 of them do what they are supposed to do, and you get the one we have right here that doesn't do what anyone thought it would do," said Gig Lebret from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Boise Interagency fire team was originally called in to investigate. They ruled the fire an arson. A month later, KREM 2 learned there was a change in the investigation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs out of Wellpinit decided they could not prove arson or the fact that someone intentionally set the fire. Officials re-declared the fire "human caused," which means it could have been an accident. There is a second theory for how the fire started -- lightning. Rick Anderson's volunteer fire team with Stevens County Fire District 2 was paged out on the night of August 13. They were first on scene to what was at first a small, three acre fire. A storm with lightning was confirmed in the area that night.
"Well on the 911 call, they said we think there was lightning in the area and we think that's what started it," said Anderson.
Not everyone agrees to the lightning theory, but Lebret said his investigators have yet to rule it out.
"The Boise Interagency people told us that the weather history they looked at showed the nearest ground strike was 6 miles away," said Lebret. "There was lightning all over the place, but the ground strike was 6 miles away."
If this is the case, some wondered if could there have been more than one starting point for the fire.