CHELAN, Wash. -- A 450-acre fire in the Wenatchee National Forest was caused by a group of hikers who thought it would be more ecologically sound to burn their used toilet paper rather than bury it, a spokeswoman said Friday.
The four hikers -- doctors who recently graduated from the Harvard School of Medicine -- told a fire investigator Thursday they were to blame for the blaze north of Lake Chelan, spokeswoman Marti Ames of the Wenatchee National Forest said.
'They wanted to do the right thing -- they thought they were,' she said. 'I bet they were really shocked.'
The fire was unintentional because the hikers were following the guidelines of a book that recommended burning toilet paper, she said.
Flames from the burning toilet paper, set ablaze in hot, dry weather, spread quickly out of control and swept through the area about 35 miles north of Chelan, Ames said.
Ames said the hikers might be issued a citation and forced to pay the cost of fighting the blaze. She would not release their names.
The group was on the Lake Shore trail, a low-elevation path that runs along the edge of Lake Chelan, when the fire started at about noon Thursday.
About 150 firefighters were at the scene Friday, hoping to contain the blaze by digging lines around its edges, she said.
