Residents and visitors to the North Shore are showing cool-to-lukewarm compliance with the bans on smoking, bonfires and barbecues in public places as the region is at high risk of forest fires.
Since May, West Vancouver crews have had to respond to 11 brush and median fires, which is not bad considering there were 37 in the months of June and July 2015, said West Vancouver assistant fire chief Jeff Bush.
While a few of those were caused by sparks coming from trains, most are coming from cigarettes, Bush said, noting that has been the hardest part of the ban to enforce.
“We ban it. We tell people not to. They tell us to s***w off and we try to write them a ticket,” he said.
Fire inspectors can issue $100 fines for smoking in public parks, although Bush joked it might be easier to turn a one-and-a-half-inch water hose on smokers to soak them down.
Thankfully, West Vancouver trucks haven’t been called out to deal with bonfires on beaches.
“I think that with all the media coverage of the fires up north, people are pretty much getting the picture with respect to bonfires,” he said.
City of North Vancouver fire chief Dan Pistilli said he too has noticed the problem with smokers.
“Still the biggest threat has been the discarding of cigarettes,” he said. “Lots and lots of that.”
City fire inspectors haven’t been handing out fines up until this point but that is likely about to change Pistilli said.
“We’re going to be ramping that up,” he said.
Things have been relatively quiet in the District of North Vancouver, according to assistant fire chief Chad Laforet.
“Quite honestly, compliance seems to be the flavour of the day,” he said noting they’ve had only a couple of median fires since the hot, dry spell began.
District crews are, however, fanning out to local parks just to make sure people are aware of the bans, he added.
“With the state of emergency that we’re in, people need to realize, just because there are large fires burning throughout the province, we’re not immune to that type of activity here. Just be responsible. Report any suspicious activity or fires, obviously, to the fire department,” he said.
The weather forecast is still hot enough and dry enough that people shouldn’t expect the rules to change anytime soon, Pistilli added.
“We’re going to stick with that ban. We’re going to need a substantial amount of rain before we’re going to change that back,” he said. “I don’t really see it changing in the foreseeable future.”
Under the Wildfire Act, anyone who drops a “burning substance,” including cigarettes, within one kilometre of forest or grass land can be fined $575.
