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Boy Scouts put out wildfire started by abandoned campfire in Waldo Lake Wilderness


{p}Boy Scouts put out a wildfire started by an abandoned campfire in the Waldo Lake Wilderness this past weekend. "They carried water with pails from a nearby lake and worked the incident for over an hour," the Willamette National Forest said on Facebook. "This is an example of a fire that was stopped before becoming a bigger incident." (USDAFS){/p}

Boy Scouts put out a wildfire started by an abandoned campfire in the Waldo Lake Wilderness this past weekend. "They carried water with pails from a nearby lake and worked the incident for over an hour," the Willamette National Forest said on Facebook. "This is an example of a fire that was stopped before becoming a bigger incident." (USDAFS)

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OAKRIDGE, Ore. - Boy Scouts put out a wildfire started by an abandoned campfire in the Waldo Lake Wilderness this past weekend.

"They carried water with pails from a nearby lake and worked the incident for over an hour," the Willamette National Forest said on Facebook. "This is an example of a fire that was stopped before becoming a bigger incident."

The news comes as the Milepost 97 Fire reaches full containment almost a month after a campfire sparked the blaze near Canyonville.

Lane County is also preparing to allow the public back on trails on Mount Pisgah for the first time since a wildfire there Thursday.

Overall, wildfires to date have only burned 14% of the acreage burned as of the same point in time in 2018, according to the Northwest Coordination Center.

Of the 166,000 acres, the majority have burned in Washington state - 136,000 acres. The single largest blaze of the year was the Williams Flats Fire, which burned 44,500 acres along the Columbia River near the Grand Coulee Dam. The fire started Aug. 2 and is now 85% contained.

At 13,000 acres, the Milepost 97 Fire is the largest fire of the year so far in Oregon.

"Although we are grateful for a less severe fire season so far this year, the vast majority of wildfires have been human caused," the Willamette National Forest notes. "Please help by never leaving your fire unattended and make sure it is cold to the touch before leaving."

The Northwest Coordination Center says that, of the 2,364 fires reported in the Northwest, 1,556 were started by humans.

To date, wildfires have cost over $71 million to fight in the region this summer.

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