‘Use your common sense’: Sasamat fire crews find unattended campfire

Sasamat fire crews were surprised to find smoke still coming out of an unattended campfire in Anmore Wednesday afternoon, despite last year being the worst wildfire season in B.C.’s history.

“Use your common sense,” said Fire Chief Jay Sharpe. “Think of everybody else in the area that is going to be impacted by your poor decisions.”

READ MORE: B.C. year in review 2017: wildfires devastate the province like never before

He said that’s why they snapped a picture and took their plea to social media. The fire department posted the picture on Twitter and Instagram, hoping to get the message across.

Not a good start to spring. We had our first unattended campfire today on Crystal Creek Drive. Some young people were seen in the area and left without putting out the fire. Not cool. Reminder: No campfires allowed in #Anmore without a permit. No campfires in #Belcarra period. Please spread the word.

A post shared by Sasamat Fire Department (@sasamatfire) on Mar 21, 2018 at 8:42pm PDT

“I want to start the year off right and have it top of mind for everybody that anytime is a good time to be fire smart, and what we saw yesterday definitely wasn’t fire smart.”

READ MORE: 3 years in jail, up to $100K in fines part of new effort to decrease wildfire risk in B.C.

The provincial government announced on Thursday that it will be hiking some wildfire-related penalties to serve as a deterrent this fire season, with some going up to $100,000. Sharpe said that even though most of those penalties apply to areas outside of municipal jurisdictions, they are also updating their bylaws to increase their fines.

“People just don’t seem to get the message unless you hand them a big hefty fine.”

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More than 1,300 fires engulfed the province last year, burning more than 1.2 million hectares. The 2017 wildfire season also saw the longest state of emergency in the province’s history, lasting a total of 10 weeks, and displaced tens of thousands of British Columbians.

“It befuddles me sometimes what people do. Even at the height of last year’s driest season we had four different complaints in the village of Anmore with people that were burning fires, even though there was a complete ban across the province,” said Sharpe.

READ MORE: BC NDP announces review following devastating 2017 wildfire and flooding seasons

He said campfires in the area are only allowed if the person has a permit, which the group that left behind the campfire on Wednesday did not have.

“For a lot of residents in Anmore, having a campfire, they treat is as a privilege, not a right. So when people come and violate these rules, they get pretty upset because they don’t want to lose that privilege,” said Sharpe, noting Belcarra banned campfires completely about 20 years ago.

READ MORE: 2017 BC wildfire season ‘the new normal’: province urged to act

“It doesn’t take much, especially when it does start to dry out, to go from a not as serious situation to a very serious situation,” said Sharpe.