Visitor’s Toilet Paper Mistake Triggered a Fire That Burned up the Trees of Joshua Tree National Park

On November 12, a day after the shutdown wrapped up, a ranger at Joshua Tree National Park ventured on a tour of the park. He veered through the San Bernardino County, reflecting upon groves of Seuss-esque trees. Many had survived, but most of them were choked with dry grass, their dagger-like leaves and spiky pineapple crowns. The blaze initiated after an unforeseen fire erupted south of the park’s Black Rock Campgrounds. Now, a report by SFGate suggests that the culprit behind this fire was actually an unobservant hiker who put a match to a trail of toilet paper, triggering a fleet of raging flames.

The devastatingly dramatic “toilet paper mistake” episode was unleashed on October 12, thanks to the unwitting park visitor. Dubbed “Black Rock Fire,” the episode involved blistering flames that climbed to the treetops, rushed and spread through the grasses, burning everything to embers and ash. Firefighters stepped on the scene to control the outburst, but almost 72 acres had already been scorched to dead rubble. More than a thousand trees were charred. The fire burned for eight days straight before the fire managers were able to bring it under control, per the LA Times.

For all these days, the main trigger behind the “Black Rock Fire” remained mysterious, until recently, when a ranger revealed the story of this hiker. For entirely unknown and bizarre reasons, the hiker lit the toilet paper on fire. The situation got amplified by the government shutdown that was lingering at the time of the fire. Staffing shortages imposed on the park amplified the disastrous situation. If more rangers were present at the scene to guide the hiker, the fire wouldn’t have spread to such an intensity.

In conversation with SFGate, an NPS communication officer said that the individual involved was a day hiker, not an overnight backpacker. They did not hold a backcountry permit, so the claim that the shuttered permit office played a role is incorrect. Meanwhile, the firefighter estimates that about 15 to 20 percent of the trees have been damaged by the Black Rock Fire. While many are re-growing their root systems and new stems, many won’t survive. Jackrabbits and other critters that survive by guzzling up water trapped in the Joshua trees are now at the edge of uncertainty about acquiring their water supply.

Brendan Cummings, conservation director for the Center for Biological Diversity, who surveyed the plants in the burned zone after the fire, reflected that this was a “totally avoidable tragedy.” If the rangers had provided important education about fire safety, the flames wouldn’t have ravaged the park to such an extent. Federal funding cuts cropped up due to the shutdown, also contributed to the situation. Even more so, the lack of funds and staffing has dropped the park’s resources division from 30 employees to just seven.

Still, Cummings believes that it wasn’t that bad. “In many ways, we got lucky. It was contained, and it didn’t burn as hot as some fires have burned,” he told the LA Times. He added that while many of the trees have been killed by the fire, many stand in better shape than most of them do in post-fire landscapes. Yet, the fact that can’t be denied is that the episode was “catastrophic.” Meanwhile, Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior, said the complete story behind the fire remains under investigation.