Updated: 10:44 a.m.
As fire lit up the night sky and flames licked dangerously close to Hydro lines located across a grassy area off Hightide Avenue, neighbours from an adjacent townhouse complex on Ebbtide Avenue grabbed fire extinguishers, shovels and rakes and charged up the small slope dividing their homes from the blaze.
Ready to battle the fire themselves in order to save their homes just metres away, these neighbours appeared to give no thought to their own safety on Monday night, but instead were determined to protect their families from the flames.
It wasn't until firefighters arrived and asked them to stand down, that they reluctantly walked back to their homes to keep vigil.
Following an investigation, a previous fire in the exact same place last week was deemed intentionally set and some of the neighbours milling around Monday night voiced their concerns that an arsonist could also be responsible for this blaze.
Sechelt fire chief Dwight Davison told Coast Reporter Tuesday morning, while that first fire, July 23, was investigated and confirmed as “intentional,” this blaze was definitely human caused, but whether it was deliberate can’t be determined.
The scene of the fire, a grassy area underneath Hydro lines, directly adjacent to the homeless encampment on Hightide Avenue, has become a popular spot for people to hang out, smoke and build fires.
“As we know, that area sustains 24-hour foot traffic through there because, again, it's a main thoroughfare from Trail Avenue over to the Hightide area. With that comes a lot of human activity,” said Davison. “That fire was human caused, whether it was accidental or purposeful, is undetermined. But this our second fire there in a week. So, it's certainly a cause for concern of all the residents that live in the area.”
Davison added, the fire department had already been out to check on the property early in the morning and plan to drop by and do spot checks throughout the week.
“If you want to look at some positives, the fuel is slowly being burned off through some of these fires. So again, the regrowth of that isn't going to happen through the summer,” said Davison. “Any fire that's in there is typically like a rank one, possibly a rank two fire. So, they are pretty small fires in intensity, although at night, they look bigger. And we do have good established entrance routes into that area. We have operational plans for fires in that spot because, again, it's a high traffic and we're there quite frequently.”
Davison said the call came in at 9:46 p.m., July 28, and three apparatus with 13 firefighters from Sechelt responded to the fire, while one apparatus and six firefighters were called out from Halfmoon Bay to assist with extinguishing the fire, cleanup and to provide a resource should another call come in.
Davison noted, he was on scene within five minutes of the call and the first apparatus was on scene within seven minutes.
RCMP media relations officer Cpl. Philippe H. Atoui, told Coast Reporter in the case of the July 23 fire, an individual was issued a violation ticket under Section 5(1) of the Wildfire Act.
“No arrests were made and there is no indication it was related to an arson,” Atoui wrote in an email.
From 7 a.m.
As fire lit up the night sky and flames licked dangerously close to Hydro lines located across a grassy area off Hightide Avenue, neighbours from an adjacent townhouse complex on Ebbtide Avenue grabbed fire extinguishers, shovels and rakes and charged up the small slope dividing their homes from the blaze.
Ready to battle the blaze themselves in order to save their homes just metres away, these neighbours appeared to give no thought to their own safety on the night of July 28, but instead were determined to protect their families from the flames.
It wasn't until firefighters arrived and asked them to stand down, that they reluctantly walked back to their homes to keep vigil.
It’s suspected a previous fire in the exact same place last week was intentionally set and some of the neighbours milling around Monday night voiced their concerns that an arsonist could also be responsible for this blaze.
Coast Reporter will be updating this story today, July 29, as more information comes in from fire and police.
