Leniency and patience are being abandoned as local officials continue to deal with people lighting fires despite an almost province-wide fire ban and the extreme fire threat in and around Powell River, but the number of fines handed out remains unknown.
Tickets are being written by a number of provincial agencies in Powell River, including BC Conservation Officer Service, Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations compliance officers, RCMP and local fire departments.
The involvement of multiple agencies makes it difficult to know how many illegal fires are being discovered and how many tickets are being handed out, said Coastal Fire Centre fire information officer Marg Drysdale.
“As of now, we do not have any kind of numbers,” said Drysdale. “We have been very busy fighting fires and resources have been sent to other parts of the province.”
On August 7, nine people at a bush party near Gibsons were fined $1,150 each by RCMP after they were caught sitting around a large fire on Home Island.
Conservation officer Gerry Lister said his department in Powell River has issued two tickets in the past few weeks for illegal fires they found during routine evening checks.
“Compliance with the fire ban has been pretty good if you consider it on a per capita basis,” said Lister.
The amount of conjecture on how many fires are being lit could be due to people using propane burners instead of campfires because they look like campfires from a distance, he added.
Powell River Regional District manager of emergency services Ryan Thoms said his fire chiefs at Savary Island, Malaspina and Northside volunteer fire departments have been responding to calls of illegal fires.
Savary’s fire department has been responding to approximately two fires per week over the past two weeks, said Thoms.
No one should expect any leniency from regional volunteer fire departments or be surprised to be ticketed when it comes to being caught with illegal fires, he added.
“No tickets have been issued yet on Savary, but patience has run out,” said Thoms. “It's hard to believe, given what's been in the media, that people are still finding the need to have a campfire.”
Lister said the people he ticketed said they did not know a fire ban was in place.
Powell River Fire Rescue chief Terry Peters said while compliance with the city’s year-round standing ban has been improving, the department has still been responding to calls from people having beach and backyard campfires.
"Everyone in the province is on guard with the smoke in the air, but we're still getting people who think it's okay to spark up a little fire in the backyard,” said Peters. “If everyone was responsible, we wouldn't have a problem, but the reality is that everybody's version of a small fire is very different. That's why these bylaws are in place.”
Peters said recklessly discarded cigarette butts are posing an even larger issue than illegal campfires. He added that his crews have been called out on a number of occasions recently to attend to small fires outside of Powell River General Hospital where discarded cigarettes have caused bark mulch to start smouldering.
“It’s just smokers being careless,” said Peters, “with their cigarettes.”
