INVESTIGATORS say the fire on North Vancouver's Mount Fromme Friday evening was almost certainly caused by careless visitors to the area.
"It's human-caused, and it's under investigation," said Donna MacPherson, information officer for the Coastal Fire Centre, a provincial agency that deals with wildfire suppression. "It wasn't lightning, so it's got to be people. That's basically our litmus test."
The fire scorched about 150 square metres of wooded area and brush near the lookout point at switchback six on the old Grouse Mountain Highway, one of Fromme's many trails.
Crews from the Wildfire Management Branch and Metro Vancouver attacked the blaze just after 4 p.m. Friday after getting a flood of calls reporting a thick plume of smoke visible from around the North Shore. Crews had the fire doused that evening and stayed on scene to mop up until midday Saturday.
Despite the ultra-dry conditions in Lower Mainland forests, the fire stayed "relatively small," likely thanks to the calm winds, MacPherson said.
"Your area was in high fire danger rating at the time. There wasn't a lot of wind that day, so that certainly helped keep the fire from growing quickly. Fire behaviour is very reactive to wind," she said.
There is no province-wide campfire ban in place, said MacPherson.
Authorities are noticing a lot of reckless behaviour in local forests while the risk remains high.
"We've been finding an unfortunate amount of abandoned campfires over the weekends.
"We need people to pay attention to that. They need to go back to watering them well, turning them over and making sure they're cold before they leave the area," MacPherson said. "We're seeing a continuing drying trend in your area. . . . That little bit of sprinkle you got isn't enough to rehydrate the forest to any degree, so it's going to continue to be dry in your area."
