Saturday April 25, 2020 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Due to an equipment spark from land clearing in the area, there was a mid-day brush fire in the Sooke Road area near Woodruff Road in Langford on Tuesday April 21.
It was a significant fire in a logged area which ended up being 1.5 hectares in size, said Assistant Fire Chief Lance Caven. The fire was started accidentally by workers at the site, he said. The combination of a steep slope, dry conditions and no access to nearby water allowed the fire to grow quickly.
“We had many firefighters on scene from Langford, Colwood and Metchosin, and also the B.C. Wildfire service. The crews worked extremely hard to contain this fire in steel logged terrain,” Caven explained.
Crew were on the scene for four hours and returned the next day to extinguish the rest of the fire and any hot spots.
Langford Fire would like to remind everyone that there has not been a lot of rain recently and therefore conditions are dry. This year has seen one of the driest months of April on record. As of April 21, there had been only 5 mm of rain in Victoria, according to Environment Canada.
“In this dry weather, everyone needs to be diligent about any high risk activities they may be doing,” says Caven.
In the last several summers, many brush fires and fires in bark mulch in urban areas have been the result of tossed cigarette butts. Also, sparks from ATV sport vehicles out in the brush can give off sparks that easily lead to fires.
Given that fire rescue personnel are particularly on high alert during COVID-19 (including needing to use personal protective equipment) it would be helpful to have fewer (or no) cigarette butt fires or anything as a result of negligence this year.