05/26/09 Bend
 
The fire that sparked Sunday afternoon in the East Fort Rock area 30 miles south east of Bend has been declared contained. It charred more than 30 acres and investigators say it is human caused. Investigators determined the fire started in an area the size of a pickup truck. One of the first steps as they arrive on scene is to determine whether the fire was natural or human caused. "We use a process of elimination, we pulled up the lightning maps, we did have the lightening the day before, there was no lightning in that area, you go around and look in the trees, see if there's any lightning," said Travis Moyer, a Fire Investigator with the US Forest Service.
 
After hours of scouring the area, the exact source is still unknown. "We'll set up grid patterns with string and actually make a grid on the ground and we'll go grid by grid mapping each grid and sifting through the needles trying to find a match head or maybe you could find the staple out of a book of matches," said Moyer.
 
At the site of an old prescribed burn off Century Drive in Bend, Moyer demonstrated one of the most important steps investigators take. They use these flags to show the fire's path-- blue shows the area of origin, red shows where the fire's heading, and yellow shows the edges of the fire. Investigators only pinpoint an exact cause 50 percent of the time and only find the person responsible 10 percent of the time. If that person is found, it could cost them. The fire in the east fort rock area is estimated to cost between $80,000 and $100,000 for personnel and equipment. So far this year Central Oregon fire agencies have responded to 30 human caused fires on public land charring about 45 acres. The Oregon Department of Forestry responded to 51; three lightning caused and 48 human caused charing 301 acres on private and state owned land.