A tipped-over, single-burner camp stove sparked a 3,300-acre grassfire along the Deschutes River far downstream of Bend, fire officials announced Tuesday.

The Gordon Butte Fire started Saturday on the east side of the river between Wasco and Dufur, said Lisa Clark, spokeswoman for the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center. A trail runs along that side of the river and boaters often float that stretch of water.

She said investigators had yet to release the name of the person or people responsible for the fire.

“Sounds like someone camping along (the river) there,” she said. “I don’t know if they hiked in or boated in.”

The investigation is ongoing and as of late Tuesday Clark said she hadn’t heard of anyone being cited for starting the blaze.

High winds Sunday pushed the fire across the river to the west side as well, Clark said. It has since spread to the north and south, coming within a half mile of the Harris Ranch historic site. The ranch, abandoned in the 1900s, has an old water tower that is a landmark for boaters. As of late Tuesday the fire was 75 percent contained and firefighters expected full containment by tonight.

The fire started on land overseen by U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It has burned about a third each on land overseen by the BLM, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and private owners. Coincidentally, the BLM issued fire restrictions Saturday banning campfires and barbecues along the Lower Deschutes River as well as the John Day River and portions of the Crooked River. White gas or propane stoves, similar to what started the fire, are permitted.

Clark said fires started by such stoves aren’t a common enough occurrence to warrant restrictions on them and the Gordon Butte Fire isn’t going to change that, but people should take precautions when using camp stoves. Those include making sure there is not dry vegetation within three to five feet of the stove and it is on level ground.

Campers should use stoves on rock outcroppings or bare-mineral soil, said Kevin Larkin, district ranger on the Bend-Fort Rock District of the Deschutes National Forest.

“So if something does happen you don’t put yourself at risk of starting a fire that you couldn’t catch,” he said.

While the district doesn’t have any fire restrictions in place yet, Larkin said, people should use existing fire rings for campfires and be careful with stoves. Recent dry weather and warm days in the forecast are priming the woods for fire. Larkin said current conditions are more reminiscent of early July than early June in Central Oregon.

“Just because we are not in restrictions right now doesn’t mean that fire danger is absent,” he said.