Wildland fire investigators use many tools to find cause

SEATTLE — The Department of Natural Resources says 85 percent of all wildland fires in our state are started by humans.

Wildland fires are especially difficult to investigate. Just by their nature, wildland fires cover a large area.

So locating the source of the fire and who or what caused it gives new meaning to finding a needle in a haystack.

"Often we're looking for a piece of evidence the size of my fingernail in a pile of debris the size of this house," said Paul Way.

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Way has been a fire investigator for 22 years. He spoke at a park in Bothell to give us some idea of just how much ground it takes to cover a wild land fire.

"We spend hundreds of hours doing wildland fire investigations," said Way.

He says it is a science and an art.

"Our process follows the scientific method and we form hypotheses," Way said. "We do experimentation. We do analysis, research to form opinions."

KIRO 7 got a glimpse of the work that goes into investigating wildland fires just three days ago. DNR investigators were dispatched to Mason County where more than a dozen fires have started over just a few days. They suspect the fires are the work of an arsonist. 

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, fires caused by human beings burn more than 2.7 million acres across the country every year. The lion's share of those fires are started in the Southern U.S. In fact, as often as wildland fires erupt in the Northwest, by region, the fewest acres burn here from arson.

Way says to figure that out, investigators study the burn pattern the fire leaves behind.

"If a fire were to burn through here being driven by a lightning moving destruction we'll see a particular deformation in the vegetation," said Way. "We get down and actually look at individual blades of grass and how they're burned."

Way was one of the investigators on the destructive Sleepy Hollow wildland fire in 2015. Flames tore through thousands of acres north Wenatchee and laid waste to nearly 30 homes. They concluded that fire was set. Then began the work of finding the arsonist.

"Often if a person sets a fire I mean they will talk and they will tell their friends and their friends often will come forward," said Way. "That's one way, or other witnesses. So, for example, there's fire in Eastern Washington I mentioned, Sleepy Hollow Road, and the fire origin was captured in photographs by river rafters. People just happened to be going down the river taking pictures and they posted those on social media. So we pulled those images off at the exact time. And then take that time and go along this road and interview all the residents to find who they might have seen driving by."

That led investigators to a 37-year-old man who confessed.

Way says they use just about any tool available to investigate wildland fires: reports from first responders, pilots who are flying over the area, other eyewitnesses, even metal detectors And, if needed, DNA is a tool, too.

Given the number of fires underway already in Washington state, fire investigators will likely have their hands full for months.

Cox Media Group