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.