VERNON – RCMP in the North Okanagan say they don’t know what sparked a small fire at the base of some trees on a residential property in the 5700 block of Silver Star Road in the BX area on Monday.
The area’s assistant fire chief says it could have been worse if it wasn’t for neighbours who saw the smoke, called 911 and then started their own bucket brigade to put out the flames. Then BX Swan Lake firefighters arrived and finished the job.
“Had it not been for the neighbours there is a very good chance that the fire could have climbed to the ladder fuels in the trees and spread through the treetop,” says Stephen Hidasi the assistant fire chief for BX Swan Lake Fire – Rescue.
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Police were called in around 2:45 p.m. Monday and arrived after the fire, which grew to two feet by four feet in size, had already been extinguished. RCMP say there were no overnight lightning strikes in the area and people installing fence posts nearby didn’t see any activity.
Spokesperson Gord Molendyk says investigators didn’t find any evidence the fire had been deliberately set.
“Is it suspicious? Well it is suspicious in the sense of why would a fire start there,” says Molendyk. “But to say that we found anything to say ‘oh this was purposefully set,’ no we can’t.”
However, Hidasi says it appears the flames were intentionally started. He says “male youth” had been spotted in the same area at two other times “and on both occasions there was no confrontations. The youth vacated the property very quickly upon being discovered but after they had left it was found that they had been playing with fire down below and there was scorch marks in among piles of brush.”
“If you are 900 feet away from the nearest domicile and you are 250 feet from the next domicile across the creek, it gets to be human caused and it looks intentional,” he says.
Police have recorded the fire for information but are not actively investigating. Molendyk says police don’t have any information right now that shows a pattern of fire starts.
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