While crews are battling forest fires around the province, local fire departments are finding brush fire season has arrived on the North Shore.
West Vancouver Fire and Rescue services members doused a large fire just off the Highway 1 at Caulfeild exit 4 on Monday afternoon.
District of West Vancouver public works staff driving by noticed the fire and tried to put it out but had no luck, according to fire chief Dave Clark.
“When the crews got on this one, it was actually a lot larger than we were anticipating,” Clark said. “It grew to approximately 200 feet by 200 feet and it started catching on the trees. We had two engine companies there for probably about an hour.”
There has been an increase in small fires in the bark mulch and gardens along medians, ditches and parking lots in recent weeks, almost all of which are caused by “smoking material” – flicked cigarettes, Clark said.
Clark couldn’t say for sure what started Monday’s blaze but he said there was definite evidence that people had been hanging out there, including beer cans left behind.
The current wildfire risk for the South Coast is moderate.
