Police, fire crews warn people not taking high fire risks seriously
Posted June 18, 2019 6:00 am.
Last Updated June 18, 2019 11:45 am.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Despite the rain in the forecast, B.C. forests are currently bone dry and the RCMP says people still haven’t gotten the message to be fire safe – despite repeated warnings. Officials are struggling as people ignore burning restrictions, despite high risk conditions and two record-breaking years of fire in the province.
Squamish police seemed exasperated this week, taking to Twitter to ask: “If anyone has any ideas of how to prevent human caused fire, let us know.”
The force has been handing out tickets to people tossing cigarette butts from their car windows on Highway 99, and has also had to shut down a number of illegal campfires.
If anyone has any ideas of how to prevent human caused fires, let us know. We gave tickets last week for cigarettes thrown out the window and are attending to illegal fires in our area…maybe there's another solution we are missing? Alas, we are dry,we all need to play our part. https://t.co/B6b411SgM9
— Squamish RCMP (@SquamishRCMP) June 17, 2019
The City of Coquitlam is looking at hiring two additional bylaw officers just to patrol parks for smokers and illegal fires. The positions would be seasonal, to weed out bad behavior during the tinder dry summer months.
Port Moody Fire Chief Ron Coulson says people are ignoring the rules.
“Outdoor burning is in fact banned here and has been since 2017 – we’re just reinforcing that fact. You know the new reality of the dangers between our wildland-urban interface and our beautiful parks system. Campfires and celebratory fires are not allowed,” he says.
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“People are getting away into those areas where they’re not easily seen and we’re just concerned that with the forest floor conditions and the amount of fuel and drying conditions, they’re a danger to our community.”
He adds communities that are close to forests are taking the conditions more seriously.
“Changing climactic conditions, we’ve noticed a real change in our local forest systems. All of the communities that abut the forested areas including the North Shore, ourselves, Coquitlam are preparing themselves for wildfire systems more readily than they have in the past.”
There are currently 50 active wildfires in British Columbia, and 11 of those are suspected to have been caused by people.
