Late Wednesday, amid a province-wide state of emergency and campfire ban, one of our readers submitted a past-deadline item for Kisses and Kicks:
“Kicks to the person in the black Civic who tossed a lit cigarette butt out of the window near Norwest Bay Road. I wish I was able to get your plate number. Such a dangerous thing to do in this weather. Shame on you.”
This week’s Police Report describes another act so foolish that “Shame on you” again seems to be in order. Last Saturday, RCMP responded to a complaint about an illegal campfire in Port Mellon. They found the offenders, warned them, and the campfire was put out. After the Mounties left, guess what? The campers restarted the fire. On their second visit, the police issued a violation ticket that carries a $1,150 fine.
As we go to press Thursday morning, Williams Lake and outlying areas, with a population of almost 11,000 people, remain on evacuation alert, surrounded by four major fires. In the past week, about 14,000 people have been evacuated from 100 Mile House, Cache Creek, the Ashcroft and Princeton areas, and several smaller communities throughout the region. Travellers are being stranded due to highway closures, an unknown number of structures have been destroyed, and in many parts of the Interior not directly threatened by fire, air quality health risk is high and in some cases off the scale.
Although the coastal region has been spared the devastation that’s sweeping through the heart of the Interior, the fire danger rating for the Sunshine Coast has been upgraded to high. The seven-day forecast calls for hot, dry weather.
In these conditions, there is no room for carelessness. No bending of the rules. No exceptions.
As Sechelt Fire Chief Trevor Pike said this week, with so much of the province’s resources tied up fighting the wildfires in the Interior, we cannot afford to have a fire break out in our region.
It was only two years ago that the Sunshine Coast, Sechelt in particular, had a taste of the destructive power of a wildfire. No one here should have to be reminded of how deadly serious the risks are.
