Tubbs Hill fire appears to be human-caused

COEUR d'ALENE - The Tubbs Hill fire on Saturday appears to have been human-caused, a fire official said Tuesday.

"The police department and fire department are conducting a joint investigation to see who may be responsible for the fire," Coeur d'Alene Fire Department Deputy Chief Glenn Lauper said. "We have evidence that indicates that it was a human-caused fire."

Fire officials estimated on Saturday the fire burned roughly 5 acres. Lauper said that was revised to 1 acre after investigators used GPS to measure the burn area.

Some trees were lost in the fire, he said.

Fire officials will likely spend as long as the next 10 days searching for hotspots on the hill, Lauper said.

He asked that anyone who sees smoke on the hill call 911 and provide a location.

The fire department won't be granting any open burning permits because of the current ground and weather conditions. Backyard campfires will be allowed.

While the fire danger index is high throughout the region, it's extreme on Tubbs Hill and other open spaces in Coeur d'Alene, Lauper said.

The fire on Saturday on Tubbs forced hundreds of people to leave the popular park. A helicopter with a scoop made repeated drops of water on the fire on the west side of the hill to knock it down.