One of two small grass fires at Munson Pond Park on Wednesday has been called suspicious by the Kelowna Fire Dept.
The fire dept. is also thankful at least two local residents acted quickly in preventing the fire from spreading further.
“We had reports of a possible grass fire by Munson Pond,” said Capt. Tim Hill of the Kelowna Fire Dept. “Luckily, a couple of passers-by noticed it and stomped it out before we got on scene.”
“With the public, just be very careful with that stuff,” added Hill. “They did a great job today and kept it from moving.”
Fire fighters doused Wednesday’s two small fires, checking for hot spots at the same time. Notably, a small fire at Munson Pond was extinguished on Tuesday.
Hill said one of Wednesday’s fires looked suspicious, and that police were on scene investigating.
“A little bit suspicious,” Hill said of three fires in two days. “That’s why we called the RCMP to have them investigate.”
Regarding Wednesday’s two fires, one was along a flat area, while the second was off a path.
“Just saw smoke as we came around the corner,” witness Frank Shalagan said of the bigger, flat-area fire. “We saw a little lady standing here and she was phoning 911. The flames were still fairly small, so I went and started stomping them out.”
After helping stomp out part of the fire and waiting for the fire department to arrive, Shalagan said he had no idea as to how the fire started. He also didn’t know there was a second fire, albeit much smaller, approximately 40 feet away.
“I wonder if there’s somebody doing it on purpose,” Shalagan surmised.
The woman who phoned 911, Arina Vanderpol, said she was walking around Munson Pond like she does most mornings when she noticed smoke rising from a patch of ground.
Having done the first of three laps, Vanderpol said on her second lap she noticed smoke “that wasn’t there the first time. So these people came and they started stomping around the edges. And we actually got it out around the edges. It was just burning in the middle still.”
Like Shalagan, Vanderpol said she doesn’t know how the fire started.
“Just one biker passed me and I passed them. And that’s all. Not a friendly biker, cause I said good morning and he didn’t say anything.”
“We’ve only been here a couple of months; we know this is fire season,” added Vanderpol, who lives close to Munson Pond. “Who would flick a cigarette butt?”
Shalagan says he walks along Munson Pond every day.
“I moved from the city,” he said. “It’s pretty quiet around here. It’s my new hometown now, so I was concerned because what happened last year with all the forest fires around B.C.
“Anytime you see a fire, it’s a pretty sensitive subject.”
Asked for his thoughts on seeing fires fairly close to where he lives, Shalagan said “it burns me in a way, so to speak, because this is a beautiful area, this whole city is beautiful.
“Anytime you see destruction, or potential destruction, you want to try to do something about it if you can. If (the fire) had gotten much bigger, I don’t think there’s much I could have done about it.”
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