An acre of scorched park is a testament to what could happen anywhere in the bush with low humidity and “crunchy dry” conditions.
View Royal Fire Rescue was called out for a brush fire near Pike Lake in Thetis Lake Regional Park around 10:30 p.m.
“It seemed like a wall of flame as we drove up,” said View Royal Capt. Troy Mollin. Over the next three hours, crews from View Royal, Langford, Colwood and the BC Wildfire Service would work to get the blaze under control.
“One of our main concerns when we arrived was tree and limb dangers, once we made that safe, we were able to advance into the fire,” Mollin said.
Once safety was assured, crews tackled the blaze from all three sides and maintained control of it by 1:30 a.m.
View Royal crews returned a few hours later to douse a couple of flare-ups and then handed the scene – a regional park – to CRD staff for mop-up.
“We’re going to go back and assist with assessing where we’re at with hot spots later on to ensure there are no flare-ups or spread,” Mollin said Tuesday morning.
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The smell of smoke in the air had neighbouring residents worried and Highlands Fire Rescue took to social media to let residents know the smoke smell was from the nearby wildfire and was being dealt with. The late-night blaze, and resident worry over the scent of smoke in a rural setting, served as an opportunity for Highlands Fire Rescue to remind residents to register for West Shore Alert.
The region uses the app to alert residents to a variety of emergencies with personalized notifications. Visit alertable.ca to register.
As of Tuesday (Aug. 22), morning 378 fires burned across B.C. Of the 1,881 fires in the province since April 1, 361 were attributed to lightning, 42 had unknown causes and 20 were caused by people, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
The cause of this fire is officially undetermined, Mollin said, willing to hazard a guess it was human-caused.
“There’s no other reason for the fire to start … probably human carelessness,” he said. “It’s super dry out there, even when we have green vegetation, the ground itself and the duff – or debris – on the ground is very dry, it’s crispy dry.”
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