Barbecue lovers and grill masters are being asked to put down the tongs and shut off the gas when it comes to barbecuing at North shore parks, beaches and wooded areas.
On Friday, fire departments from all three North Shore municipalities imposed a ban on all barbecues in parks and beaches until further notice.
In the wake of wildfires that have affected much of the province, especially the B.C. Interior, fire departments are taking the preventive measure because of continued high temperatures and dry spell forecasts.
“We’ve been in high fire rating for quite some time and with the projected weather that’s coming along, because of the extremely dry conditions, we figured it would be prudent to take this cautionary step and ban all barbecues in parks and beaches because of that,” said West Vancouver District assistant fire Chief Jeff Bush. “We’re just trying to be proactive here.”
He added that one day’s rain wouldn’t mean the barbecue ban would be lifted. “We would need several continuous days of rain to wet the fuel load down to a level where we would feel comfortable with it,” he said.
Under the ban, North Shore residents can still barbecue on private residential property, but bringing a cooking device such as a barbecue or briquettes down to a beach or park is strictly off limits.
Using the built-in barbecues in some municipal parks, such as the ones in John Lawson Park and Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver, are also banned.
The number of wildfires in the province has subsided slightly, to under 200, in recent days, but provincial fire crews have been bracing for windy conditions that could ramp things up again.
So far, more than 14,000 people have been displaced or forced to evacuate their homes across the province.
North Vancouver District deputy fire Chief Wayne Kennedy said that local fire crews would be on alert to make sure the ban was being followed.
“We’ll have signs posted in all our parks and we’ll also have our fire crews that’ll start doing some patrols around our parks – mostly educational, to just have a presence out there to just inform people on the reasons why we would do these things,” Kennedy said.
Early last week, the province imposed a ban on all open fires, including campfires, across all B.C. Parks, Crown lands and private lands.
North Vancouver City assistant fire Chief Dave Owens said it was up to everyone to be responsible with regards to fire safety to try and keep the city safe.
“Not everybody is going to be happy with their inability to have a barbecue in the park; it’s just one of the mitigating measures we have to take,” Owens said.
The non-emergency number to report unsafe fire activity is 604-543-6700.
