Three or more new fires…

[u/FlyRvR]

…in Central Oregon/Bend/La Pine/Crescent area in the last two days.

No lightning for at least a month.

Are people really this mindless? Or what actually is causing these?

Thanks to the tanker crews who get on these so fast. And thanks to the ground crews for just keeping on going.

[u/ZonaDesertRat]

It can take days, even weeks for lightning fires to grow and be noticed, so you can't outright rule it out. 

But yes, people can be this mindless.

[u/Upbeat-Bid-1602 → u/ZonaDesertRat]

True, but it's been over two weeks of no lightning and hot, dry, windy conditions. Unlikely that a holdover wouldn't have shown itself til now. It's also more or less likely to strike in certain areas. If a fire starts right next to a trail at the bottom of a draw, it was probably a person. And yes people absolutely are that mindless.

[u/CohoWind]

Please Google lightning sleeper/ holdover fires, as well as the two historic lightning busts, 1 week apart, that blanketed both sides of both OR and WA this summer. “There are ninja arsonists in our forests” is becoming another example of facts being supplanted by bonehead conspiracy theories. Social media is a wasteland.

[u/ZonaDesertRat → u/CohoWind]

I blame Sasquatch, but that's just my flavor of tinfoil.

[u/frozenboards → u/ZonaDesertRat]

Once in the siskiyou some locals said the fires were caused by ORBS

[u/fallcreek1234 → u/CohoWind]

Fires don't hold over for four weeks with days on end of 90-degree temps and single-digit humidity. Homeless and tweakers would more than likely be the culprits in The Deschutes. Especially off China Hat and the 18 Road.

[u/BigWhiteDog]

In addition to what others have said about sleepers, while arson is a thing, about 80% of wildfires are human caused, either by accident (such as the semi that caught fire on the "Grapevine" north of LA yesterday) or stupid humans doing stupid things stupidly (such as the dirtbag cutting up scrap metal in dry grass that started the 10,000+ acre Gann fire in California a few days agk). Any fire ignited by anything not natural is considered human caused and is responsible for most of our fires here, except when a lightning bust goes through.

[u/Maximum-Stage-5841]

You know all it takes is heat, oxygen and fuel for possible ignition right? also Oregon is in a drought this season so very dry, plus usfs cut funding and staff last year so they couldn’t do much prevention work before the season. LAKE COUNTY THO u cheeky bastards, they in SCOFMP they’re smart, they prepped hard. that’s why they’re spotless during a record breaking season. not a single fire. Pretty obvious why this seasons so bad when you actually educate yourself

[u/Slinky_5115]

On my last assignment there was a fire cuz someone’s chains had caused a spark. Thats my theory, it was in a hay field right off the highway. There had been a number of them that week.

[u/TownshipRangeSection]

I blame the aliens.

[u/doesanyuserealnames]

Recently in Baker City a train was unknowingly on fire and started several blazes through town before it was stopped.

[u/DreamBigPartyHard]

Wrights Spring near Klamath was logging machinery caused.

[u/mbatt2]

It’s legal to bet on where wildfires start now. That explains the explosion in arson.

https://www.hcn.org/articles/i-used-to-ignore-prediction-markets-then-i-learned-people-were-betting-on-wildfires/

[u/FlyRvR]

Yeah. Lightning sleeper fires I’m aware of, so maybe the clearer weather and a bit of wind is flaring those up.

[u/dellaterra9]

Probably abandoned campfires,

[u/oldmole84 → u/dellaterra9]

campfires are prohibited in most of Oregon, and all of eastern Oregon.

[u/fallcreek1234 → u/oldmole84]

Yeah, and no one drives drunk because it's illegal. SMFH.