Posted on: 09/05/17 02:36 am
HOOD RIVER COUNTY, Ore. – A 15-year-old boy was formally charged for starting a fire that burned thousands of acres of scenic forestland in the Columbia River Gorge.
Following the outbreak of the Eagle Creek Fire, Oregon State Police immediately began a criminal investigation.
According to police, they contacted a Vancouver teen in the parking lot of the Eagle Creek Trail on September 2–the day the fire started. Investigators eventually determined the teen, and possibly others, were reportedly lighting fireworks along the trail.
KGW reported several witnesses saw teenagers throwing what looked like a smoke bomb into a canyon below a trail. Liz Fitzgerald said she was hiking when she stumbled across the teens. “I just looked at that and thought, ‘Well that’s crazy,’ but I didn’t think it’ll light the whole forest on fire,” she told KGW.
Fitzgerald said the kept hiking, but turned around a few minutes later to find massive amounts of billowing smoke. She ran down to the parking lot in front of Multnomah Falls to alert authorities when she encountered the teens again. “I said, ‘Do you realize you just started a forest fire?’ And the kid said, ‘What are we supposed to do about it now?'”
Investigators were mostly silent on the matter up until October 19, when the Hood River District Attorney’s Office announced legal proceedings against the teen have started.
The 15-year-old is accused of crimes including reckless burning, depositing burning material on forest lands, unlawful possession of fireworks, criminal mischief and reckless endangering. While the fire caused extensive damage in Multnomah County, the teen is being tried in Hood River County–the location where the act originally occurred.
Prosecutors and police will not comment any further on the case until it’s resolved. The boy’s name has not been released.
The Eagle Creek Fire has burned nearly 50,000 acres and is 50% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Numerous trail closures remain in effect.
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