After watching the extreme fire situation plaguing many parts of British Columbia, some North Okanagan residents want to see a forest service road that’s also used as a campsite closed till the fire danger subsides.
Residents who live near the Kelly Main Forestry Road are worried people recreating in the area could spark a fire. However, the provincial government doesn’t feel closing the road is necessary.
“We don’t want to burn so we want the government to make the right choice and that’s barricade this road…until the fire ban is over,” said Pat Peebles who lives near the forestry road.
Despite the dry conditions, residents have still been spotting discarded cigarettes in the area in recent weeks.
“People are still smoking. They haven’t heard the message that the whole forest is so tinder dry that one little spark, one spark, would cause this whole thing to erupt into a fire,” said resident Dale Hurren.
It’s not just cigarettes residents are worried about. The forest service road is a popular area for people to camp and the remains of old fires are everywhere. While some campfires predate the fire ban, others are more recent.
Hurren said a week ago he came across a group of campers who had lit three fires which were still smoldering early the next morning. Hurren said the campers said they were not aware of the ban.
“People are coming and shooting. It is like the old frontier up here. It is not a government campsite. There is no revenue to be lost by the government,” said Peebles.
“There is… a huge emotional and financial expense if this burns.”
You don’t have to look far to find an example of the kind of destruction residents are worried about. The Martin Mountain wildfire which sparked near Monte Lake is still under investigation but officials suspect it was human caused. It burnt 150 hectares and destroyed a house.
At this point the province doesn’t plan to close the road.
“We certainly do understand that people are very nervous,” said Pam Shumka, a resource manager with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
Shumka said the fire centre manager does have the authority to order closures.
“For instance there has been specific roads closed in Williams Lake. We all know the fire danger there. Until we reach that level of sort of clear and imminent damager we hesitate to close roads,” said Shumka.
The B.C. Wildfire Service said one of the reasons the government is reluctant to close the road is that it doesn’t want to impact recreational or industrial road users.
What the province is promising however, is more patrols over the weekend.
“Our compliance and enforcement program will be having patrols out this weekend, the August long weekend, and some of those patrols will be in this area,” said Shumka.
That’s not likely to satisfy worried residents who believe the fire threat in the Kelly Main Forestry Road area is a 24/7 problem.
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