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Nov. 27--OGDEN -- A group of bikers and hikers helped put out a fire that police suspect two other hikers started.
Devin Spencer, 17, his father and father's friend were biking along the Bonneville Shoreline trail on Saturday afternon when they saw smoke near the 29th Street trailhead. The fire was burning about 200 yards above water tanks in Waterfall Canyon.
"My dad spotted the smoke and was like, we should try to stop it," said Spencer, who is the grandson of Standard-Examiner reporter Loretta Park.
So the three of them, as well as a family hiking on the same trail, pulled out their water bottles and camel packs to put out the flames.
"I was thinking we might need more water," he said. The fire was about 30 feet by 30 feet in size and neither Spencer nor his father had ever tried to put out a brush fire before.
But within a few minutes and with the addition of some dirt, the group of impromptu firefighters had the brush fire reduced to smoke. Ogden firefighters arrived soon after and took over the clean-up.
Fire Battalion Chief Corey Barton said the fire consumed a "very small area," less than an acre.
Because of the heavy oak brush and dried leaves, the fire "could have been a mess" were it not for the hikers and bikers who put it out, Barton said.
Spencer's group passed a second group of hikers earlier that afternoon who said they thought they had seen people start the fire, he said.
Authorities found the suspects later in the afternoon and cited them for reckless burning, since the fire appeared to be an accident, Barton said.
