Idaho wildfire pinned on cyclist who stopped to poop and burned the evidence


Only you can prevent wildfires — by not turning the great outdoors into your own giant bathroom, then trying to cover it up by burning the toilet paper evidence.
An unnamed bicyclist in Boise, Idaho, did just that on Wednesday, and firefighters say an ember flew into dry grass, sparking a fire than burned 73 acres in the foothills. The cyclist told authorities that he thought it was the right thing to do because it wouldn't be littering, the Boise Fire Dispatch Center said (for those who are curious, they also said human waste needs to be buried or removed from fire-prone areas). "I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go," Carrie Bilbao, spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Land Management, told KTVB of Boise. But, "in these fuel types, it's not a good idea."
Authorities say the cyclist will be fined, and might have to pay the entire cost of fighting the fire. Somewhere, Smokey Bear is weeping.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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