The Sicamous fire department made fairly quick work of a brush fire Saturday near Bayview Estates.
Fire Chief Brett Ogino says the department received the call-out at 7:30 p.m. Smoke was spotted by someone across Highway 97A at the Legacy.
“Initially, the call came in from their address, but we could see the smoke on the end of one of the roads off of Bayview,” said Ogino. “So, we went up to it and could see it was just above a house… and it was a slow-moving brush fire, but with potential to go up the hill because obviously it’s fairly steep along there. The crews got on it and did a good job knocking it down quickly and containing it to an area of about 50- by 70-feet.”
Ogino said there was a lot of smoke, and thankfully only a small breeze.
“It could have got nasty, we were fortunate it was the day before because I guess Sunday was really windy in town.”
Malakwa Fire Chief Joanne Held was in the area and stopped to assist with the fire.
Crews were onsite until about 9 p.m. putting out the fire and keeping it in check, making sure it didn’t spread anymore and protecting the house, which was a little under 100 feet away from the activity.
As of Monday, the cause of the fire was undetermined.
“The initial report was that the caller had seen fireworks up there the night before, but we weren’t able to locate any indication of fireworks and there was no cause that we could locate,” said Ogino. “There was certainly no fireworks we could see in that area, but who knows.”
The fire chief warns that despite recent rain, the fire danger rating remains high and a campfire ban is still in place.
“People seem to think, ‘oh, the fire ban is off, it’s rained once,’” laughs Ogino. “That’s not the case – it’s still extremely dry out there.”
