Indian Creek fire - 1 year ago today

[Peabody]

The Indian Creek fire started on July 4th 2017. Google satellite view shows it burning some time before the Eagle Creek fire. The Indian Creek fire was most likely due to celebratory fireworks and immense ignorance. If the Eagle Creek fire had not started when it did, this fire had the potential to also spread through out the gorge.

Edit: Satellite view was taken 7/18/2018

[justpeachy]

I heard the fireworks theory too. I asked an employee from the Forest Service and they said they thought it was a campfire. No one knows for sure, though.

[Peabody]

I agree with you that we'll never know for sure, but the date and location where the fire started points to fireworks as the cause. The fire started on the west side of Eagle Creek between Tunnel and Twister Falls. That's a very cliffy section of trail. It's very unlikely someone could make it over to the west side of the creek and set up camp, so a smoldering camp fire should be ruled out. Someone would have had to create a large campfire in the middle of the trail and embers from it would have had to ignite the fire. While possible I think this is also unlikely. IMHO 99% probability that the cause was fireworks.