Pioneer Fire investigative documents reveal information on beginning of 2024 wild land fire

Washington State Department of Natural Resources Lead Investigator on Pioneer Fire sketches progression of 2024 fire in final investigative report.

A north shore Lake Chelan property owner was reportedly conducting maintenance on his land on Alta Lake Road on June 8, 2024, when he allegedly walked outside of an outbuilding to discover a fire was burning in timber and sage brush.

The first call at 12:48 p.m. to the Central Washington Interagency Communication Center was a report of a brush fire on private land near structures.

Within 50 minutes, U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) crews arrived on the scene.

“The Pioneer Fire started in the Pioneer Creek drainage near the north shore of Lake Chelan on private property owned by Marshall Miller Et Al,” according to documents obtained through a Public Records Request.

The documents reveal the beginnings of what would turn into a close to 39,000 acre wild land fire that cost an estimated $127 million to suppress.

“Evidence and statements from the first responders, witnesses and other information found or otherwise obtained during the course of the investigation indicate the fire started in close proximity where Mark Miller, Marshal Miller’s brother, was working on repairing a welder,” Lead DNR Investigator Mike Williams reported. “Miller discovered the fire shortly after the start, which was burning through his belongings and in an effort to keep the fire from burning his outbuildings, Miller used a Massey Fergusson bulldozer with a front loader attachment to move burning debris away from them. In doing so, Miller obliterated the specific origin area and ignition area. Marshall Miller was not present at the property when the Pioneer Fire started.”

The first shuttle of DNR firefighters would arrive at the fire scene by boat at 7:26 p.m., June 8, nearly seven hours after 9-1-1 received the first call. Another fire crew would arrive the following day. By this time the fire was believed to be approximately 15 acres in size and burning actively in steep, rocky terrain.

DNR staff arrived at 11:55 a.m., June 9, 2024. Incident Commander Bryan Lyle reported that he believed the fire started “up the hill”, pointing to a road running up a creek bed. “It’s pretty obvious,” he reported.

It was determined that the terrain above the Chelan Lakeshore Trail along with a large complex of snags and rolling debris, was too dangerous for ground crews to engage the fire. At 11:00 p.m., reports indicate that crews were pulled off the fire line.

In his final report, Williams writes, “The fire remained very active overnight due to continuous down lake winds throughout the night. The fire experienced significant growth. The fire had grown to an estimated 300 acres by this time. In addition to the active fire behavior, large snags continued to fall and roll out of the fire perimeter on both flanks above the Lakeshore Trail. A request was made for a Hotshot (firefighter) crew and two fixed wing scoopers to keep the fire from progressing south (down lake) towards structures,  the left flank of the fire was left unstaffed due to inaccessible terrain.”

Investigative documents indicate fire experts were focused on three small outbuildings, "Re-purposed grain silo buildings, on the property occupied by Mark Miller, 259 Alta Lake Road.” The investigator said in his report that, “Miller gave a volunteer witness statement saying he didn’t know how the fire started.”

Investigator Williams further reported, “Miller was actively performing maintenance on a welder, however, denies ever welding or grinding in the area. He was inside his ‘building number three’ rebuilding the carburetor on one of his welders and discovered the fire when he walked out of the building which he uses as a workshop.”

Miller told investigators, “He saw the fire approximately 150 feet up the slope to the northeast. He had not been welding or grinding whatsoever prior to the fire starting and he had taken steps to weed eat the grass for fire prevention surrounding his three buildings” and other assorted items that were ultimately ruined by the fire. The weed eater Miller stated that he had used had plastic trimmer line and poly blades.

Miller then described the steps he took in an attempt to contain the fire. The investigative report says. "He first climbed up the slope and tried to extinguish the flames by throwing dirt on the fire in an attempt to smother the flames and quickly realized this was a futile effort. As the flames spread and were engulfing a large number of items, including a small recreational vehicle trailer, he decided to try and move items, many of which were on pallets, with his Kubota tractor.”

Miller then realized this was also a futile effort as the fire was moving under stuff and stated, “I was not making progress.”

Miller then decided to use a bulldozer with bucket, “to build a fire break between the buildings and the fire.” He pushed the RV and many other items that were on fire over a bank and away from the buildings. In doing so, the investigator reported that Miller, ”Completely obliterated the specific origin area and ignition area, however, in doing this, he kept his three buildings from catching on fire.”

Williams said he used a ‘systematic methodology’ to locate the general, specific origin area by tracing the fire’s macro and micro directional burn indicators from the advancing part of the fire back towards the heel of the fire.

“I determined the fire’s overall progression was upslope southwest to northeast,” Williams added.

Later in the conversation between Williams and Miller, Miller hypothesized, “Perhaps a hiker had stopped along the Lakeshore Trail that borders his property, and built a camp/cooking fire along the trail and had left it unattended causing the Pioneer Fire.”

But investigators noted, “No evidence of a campfire ring or residual camping litter was observed along the trail. Furthermore, no suitable location for a camping site or campfire was located along the trail.”

A Washington State Department of Transportation helicopter that was flying from the town of Stehekin down lake towards Chelan took photos at about 1:00 p.m., June 8, showing the Pioneer Fire in its infancy shortly after the fire started.

Investigators wrote, “The photos clearly show that the Pioneer Fire started in and around where Miller was working on his equipment, advanced northeast upslope to the Chelan Lakeview Trail and not near the Lakeshore Trail.”

The conclusion of the investigative report indicated, “The landowner, Mark Miller, obliterated the ignition area and point or origin while trying to push burning materials away from his three nearby buildings."

Williams added, "I was unable to definitively identify the ignition area or the specific cause of the Pioneer Fire.”

The DNR says any criminal or civil liability will be determined by the Washington State Attorney General (AG), who at the time was now-Governor Bob Ferguson, and to-date no AG findings have been made public.

Aerial photo of Pioneer Fire taken from a Washington State Department of Transportation helicopter on the afternoon of the fire's alleged origin, June 8, 2024.