Lightning blamed for Pole Creek Fire

After two months of investigation, the Forest Service has named the culprit in the start of the Pole Creek Fire: Lightning.

Forest Service spokesperson Jean Nelson-Dean told The Nugget Tuesday morning that investigators are "quite confident it was lightning.

"It was a difficult fire to investigate," Nelson-Dean said. The point of origin near the Pole Creek Trailhead was severely burned, so there was no specific tree that could be pointed out as having been struck by lightning.

However, surveys of weather monitoring and interviews with witnesses led investigators to conclude that a lightning-producing cell had moved across the area and produced a fateful strike.

"There was a cell there," Nelson-Dean reported. "It wasn't picked up by our radar, but it was picked up by a more sophisticated monitor and there were eyewitnesses that said there was a cell."

The point of origin was reportedly in an area not readily accessible by a person on foot.

The Pole Creek Fire burned over some 27,000 acres of Sisters Country forest, cost $17 million to suppress, and recovery and rehabilitation efforts will last for years.

The Forest Service will host an open house on the fire at Sisters Fire Hall on Tuesday, November 13, from 5 to 7 p.m.