The morning after the Elephant Hill wildfire started near Ashcroft, a man told fire crews that he hoped it wasn’t his cigarette that started the fire.

A report from Natural Resource Officer Darci Johnston says a man, who is not identified publicly in the file, stopped at 6:30 a.m. to talk to the initial attack crew, and made that comment. The report also says that man said he had worked for the Lytton Rattlers unit crew and responded to wildfires in the past.

“Guy says he hopes it wasn’t his cigarette that lit the fire; mentions he put cigarette out “properly” on the rocks; thought he was careful; lives nearby; surprised there’s a fire; people never go down there.”

Despite that person saying he was surprised there was a fire, the fire danger rating was “extreme” when the blaze broke out on July 6, 2017. It started between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. according to investigators, in an area southwest of Ashcroft. That area is south of Cornwall Road, above the Thompson River and a CN Rail tunnel.

The fire was initially blamed on the railway, but fire investigators later determined that the spot where the blaze started was too high above the rail line for sparks to fly that high.

The BC Wildfire Service said in May the fire was likely caused by smoking, but said it didn’t have evidence to prosecute anyone.

“It’s not possible to lay any charges in this case or pursue cost recovery for damages caused by the fire… So essentially now that the investigation has been concluded, no further action will be taken at this time,” fire information officer Kyla Fraser told NL News.

Ashcroft mayor Barbara Roden also spoke after the probable cause was determined.

“I don’t know how people will react to this. The sentiment I’ve been getting from people is they want a name. They want to know who started it, and I don’t know what that would do for anyone or what kind of closure that might bring,” Roden told NL News at the time.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to see justice, I don’t think its possible to see justice in the case of something like the Elephant Hill wildfire which cost a couple of hundred people everything they owned. Even if they had named a person I don’t know if that would have brought any justice.”

The Elephant Hill fire went on to burn more than 192,000 hectares and destroyed more than 200 structures.