The Agassiz Fire Department has confirmed that a fire started along Highway 7 between Hope and Agassiz Thursday afternoon was indeed started from a discarded cigarette. Chief Wayne Dyer even located the butt on the side of the road.
Luckily, passerbys who noticed the fire burning quickly sprang into action, getting the blaze almost fully under control before the fire department arrived.
Dagmar Lucak was one of them, a Hope resident who was returning from work in Agassiz when she noticed flames by the side of the road. The fire was near where the Mount Hicks fire, which grew to over 400 hectares and took two weeks for the BC Wildfire Service to bring under control, had ignited this summer Lucak said.
“I’m not sure if someone threw a cigarette out or what, but there was smoke further up as well. Coming from further up, not that it kind of went that way, so it could have been a hot spot from the last one,” she said.
After Lucak stopped, four or five other vehicles pulled over to help put out the fire.
In total, nine people got together and doused the flames with any water they could find in their cars. Two men even took 2X6 pieces of wood they found in their car and began beating the bushes with them.
Agassiz Fire Department attended the scene after the volunteers’ efforts and the fire was quickly extinguished.
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