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Mile Marker 132 Fire In Northeast Bend Caused By Cooking Fire

Bend Fire confirms blaze started on vacant lot occupied by campers

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Bend Fire Department released findings Wednesday morning, tracing the cause of the Mile Marker 132 fire in northeast Bend back to a "cooking fire" at a camp on a vacant, privately owned 13-acre lot at 64010 N. Highway 97. According to Bend Fire's press release, the person who was camping at the property remains unknown.

click to enlarge

Plane dropping fire retardant on Mile 132 Fire

Deschutes County Sheriff's Office

The fire, which started on Fri., Aug. 2 off Hwy 97 burned 78 acres before firefighters could contain it and led to evacuation orders for many in surrounding subdivisions. Due to the proximity of homes and power transmission lines, air and ground crews worked quickly to combat the flames in a coordinated effort with support at multiple levels, even using Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to help with the costs.

In a fire season on track to break records for the state, this fire was only the eighth time this year that FEMA approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant for Oregon.

As of Wednesday at 4pm all evacuation orders are lifted, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.

This story was updated to reflect current evacuation levels.

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Jennifer Baires

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Jennifer is a features and investigative reporter for the Source Weekly; her work is supported by the Lay It Out Foundation. She is passionate about stories that further transparency and accountability in our region. A nerd at heart, Jennifer enjoys diving into wonky topics and messy data. Away from her computer...