Photo Courtesy:  (c) Antonpetrus | Dreamstime.com

By Veronica Beltran

Elephant Hill wildfire

Smoking material deemed cause of 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire

May 4, 2020 | 9:20 AM

KAMLOOPS—The B.C. Wildfire Service has released the cause of the 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire after the conclusion of an RCMP investigation.

The wildfire began on July 6th, 2017, 2.5 kilometres southeast of Ashcroft. The fire grew, burning 191,865 hectares in B.C.’s south-central Interior including parts of the Kamloops Fire Centre and Cariboo Fire Centre.

The B.C. Wildfire Service’s fire origin and cause specialists investigated the Elephant Hill Wildfire and reported that the most likely cause of the wildfire was smoking or smoking materials.

Smoking materials are classified as matches, cigars, pipe tobacco, cigarettes and/or marijuana.

The BC Wildfire Service’s fire origin and cause report was completed in 2017 and was submitted as part of a larger RCMP investigation into who may have started the fire.

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RCMP recently concluded their investigation, after being unable to recover enough evidence to identify the person behind starting the fire—resulting in the release of more information by the BC Wildfire Service.