SALEM, Ore. — A man has been arrested and accused of igniting a small wildfire in the Willamette National Forest in Lane County earlier this month by lighting a pile of illegally dumped garbage on fire.
A helicopter crew spotted a column of smoke near the forest on July 6 and reported it to the Oregon Department of Forestry, who sent out a crew that was able to put out the fire. It turned out the fire was on land owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), so BLM fire investigators took over at the scene, according to a BLM news release.
The investigators found that fire began when someone dumped the garbage on public land and then set fire to it. The fire had started to spread beyond the pile, but was contained and extinguished before it got very far.
BLM worked with the Lane County Sheriff's Office and identified a suspect, who confessed to dumping the garbage. He said he grew concerned that his fingerprints would be on the garbage, so he went back the next day with a can of diesel fuel and lit it on fire, then left while it was still burning.
The suspect was arrested and booked in Lane County jail. The BLM news release did not identify him.
BLM officials stressed that any fire on public lands can be dangerous during the summer months and risks spreading into a wildfire. The rapidly escalating wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest has already stretched local firefighting agencies and resources thin.
"Whether it be helicopters flying water to dump, getting an engine up there to go ahead and put the fire out and the manpower associated with that, all that stuff is not free," said Damian Hayes, chief ranger for the BLM Northwest Oregon district. "Those costs get entailed or get put on top of not just the criminal offense nature of it. And those can grow rapidly into the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars."
"Humans cause more than 80% of wildfires on our public lands," added Adam Johnson, wildfire prevention specialist for the BLM Northwest Oregon District. "We all need to be responsible visitors and take care of our public lands."
Visitors on public lands should also be aware of current fire restrictions and closures, which can be looked up through a BLM webpage.
"Remember, this is not the place to get rid of unwanted garbage. Please take it to your local dump," Hayes said. "It's our job to protect public lands for the enjoyment of current and future generations. We take dumping very seriously and ask members of the public to call us if they see dumping or other natural resource crimes on BLM land."