And that, my friends, is another reason why we have a fire department.
For the better part of the summer—since July 1—there has been at least two, and sometimes as many as eight forest fires burning in the Tumbler Ridge area. (And by sometimes eight, I mean right now, from Boulder Lake in the north to Wapiti in the South).
While the fire that started August 11 didn’t get big enough to qualify as a forest fire, it was started in our tinder dry forests and was close enough to town to cause concern to many of the town’s residents.
According to Fire Chief Dustin Curry, at approximately 4:45pm on August 11, the Tumbler Ridge Fire Department got a number of calls about smoke rising from a wooded area behind the 200 block of Bergeron Drive.
“When I arrived, residents had actually formed their own bucket brigade, and we’re going from a nearby house to the fire with five gallon buckets of water, dousing hotspots and stuff like that,” says Curry. “Fortunately when I arrived, I actually had water in the back of my pickup, about 200 gallons, so we shorten that run. We were able to put more buckets on it.”
When the rest of the Fire crew arrived, they were able to break out a series of backpack bladders and control the fire that way. “Because of the distance from the road to where the fire was, it was easier for us to load up the backpacks of water to get in there,” says Curry. “That allowed us to get ahead of the fire, especially as there wasn’t a lot of significant flame or anything that at that point. The residents did a lot of that work, dousing the fire with five gallon buckets.”
That gave the firefighters time to run a hose from a nearby cul de sac into the bush. “That allowed us to really saturate the ground with water and get down to the fire that’s burning into the duff. If we didn’t do that, the fire would get down into the ground and just smolder.”
Fortunately, the fire didn’t get too big, thanks to the quick reaction of local residents. “We ended up having to fall one tree, it was a rotten tree that was all full of ants to the core. The fire actually did get inside that and started burning up the center of the tree, so we had to lop that off, knock it down, and then put the fire out at ground level instead of having it go all the way to the top of the tree.”
Curry thanks the residents whose quick thinking and action prevented the fire from getting out of control. “If it wasn’t for them, this could have been a totally different story.”
After the fire was mostly out, firefighters used thermal imaging to identify hotspots.
The fire was, unfortunately, human caused, despite a ban on fires in the district. “From a fire investigation standpoint, it looks like it was the result of a prohibited campfire in the area. I did sieze a water bottle in the area, which appeared to be full of gasoline or a mixed gas substance, and a lighter. The area in question looks like it’s been well used by people. There’s a makeshift log structure there, and another one that’s been partially built but never completed. I don’t know if this is kids or adults, I don’t know who’s using this but it looks like it’s been used for whatever in the past.”
Curry says this event serves as yet another example of the extreme fire risk potential that we are experiencing in our forested areas. “The Tumbler Ridge Fire Department would like to remind the public that due to this high degree of risk, the District of Tumbler Ridge has implemented burning restrictions, including a campfire ban, within the municipal boundaries. Anyone adventuring in the wilderness, including those using ATV’s and other motorized vehicles, are also urged to exercise caution when travelling in forested areas around the community.”
Curry says he’s hoping that anyone who knows anything will come forward. “I’m looking for information from the public in order to try and determine what the actual circumstances behind the fire were, as well as any persons that are involved. It’s not meant to be punitive. I want to educate people because this is likely just a case of somebody doing something they shouldn’t have. For one reason or another, and maybe they just don’t know any better, I want to stop this, especially if we’re talking about younger teens younger or older kids.
“There’s a whole systemic thing about juvenile fire setting and now is the time when we want to try and curb that and correct those actions. This is an opportunity for us to educate, to try and conduct an intervention if we need to. I’m urging the public to reach out to contact me if they have information and circumstances or anybody that’s involved.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
