Nanaimo Fire Rescue has been dealing with a series of illegal campfires being lit in park land near Townsite Road.
Firefighters responded shortly before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to snuff out a fire in what had been a homeless camp.
“There’s a strip there at 1610 Townsite Rd. that is City of Nanaimo park and it extends from Townsite Road all the way over to Summerhill [Place],” said Capt. Ennis Mond, Nanaimo Fire Rescue chief fire prevention officer.
Mond said the fire was in the site of a former homeless camp that had been previously cleared by the city’s bylaws department.
“Somehow it caught fire … yesterday evening and then the night before we had two campers on the Summerhill end in tents that kept lighting their campfire,” Mond said. “We went there and put it out once. They said they didn’t know how it started and then we went back there a second time in the evening and they didn’t know how how it started.”
Mond said he is fielding complaints from residents in apartment buildings in the area.
“I’ve told them if they see homeless people camping in the area they need to call bylaws and if they see smoke and fire call 911,” Mond said.
