Grand Forks Fire/Rescue put out a small fire at Morrissey Creek Road’s Moto encampment Monday, Sept. 13.
Monday’s incident, reported to 911 at around 6:30 p.m., was the second in as many days where the department has responded to a burn complaint at Moto, according to Dep. Chief Stephane Dionne.
READ MORE: Grand Forks city hall preparing for injunction to clear Moto
READ MORE: Campfire ban lifted in Okanagan, Boundary
Dionne said he found an open fire burning near a trailer parked at the lower portion of the former motocross site. The fire was about one-square-metre by roughly 1.5 metres high, which Dionne said exceeded the BC Wildfire Service’s (BCWS) limits for allowable campfires.
Volunteer firefighters easily put out the flames using water drawn from a fire engine.
Dep. Fire Chief Stephane Dionne surveys the scene at Moto before volunteer firefighters arrived to put out the flames. Photo: Laurie Tritschler
The man who tended the fire told responding Mounties he wanted to re-heat his lunch. Grand Forks RCMP didn’t lay any charges at the scene, but Dionne said he’d be following up with local Conservation Officers, explaining that the fire contained rubber and plastic — both prohibited burn materials under B.C.’s Wildfire Act.
Dionne said he and Chief George Seigler had been to Moto at around 7 p.m., when they found clothes and plastic containers burning in a 45-gallon drum, also prohibited burn materials under the Wildfire Act.
The City of Grand Forks started preparations for a court injunction to clear Moto in late June. Mayor Brian Taylor said Monday evening that the injunction was still in progress.
BC WS banned campfires province-wide in late June. The service lifted the ban in the Kamloops and Boundary Fire Zones effective Friday, Sept. 10. Larger fires are still banned in the area, including fireworks and burn barrels.
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