McLeese Lake Volunteer Fire Chief Ian Hicks has a message for residents thinking of burning grass after crews had to response to a fire north of Williams Lake Friday.
“The time and place for burning grass is over,” said Hicks on the department’s Facebook page.
Hicks said they had a “major incident” Friday when burning grass got away from a resident and created a dangerous situation burning out of control for nearly a kilometre.
“It may seem like a good idea at the time but fire is an out of control animal and when it escapes, it will eat everything in its path including your neighbour’s property, sheds houses etc and we then have what we had (Friday), luckily this one stopped on its own but there is no excuse for it and the person lighting the fire is liable for all the damage incurred. Please be extremely careful with fire from here on out, wether there are burning bans or not.”
A resident noted on the community’s Facebook page that Brad McMillan with his fire truck and Gord Rourke were first on the scene of the fire.
“Brad would like to thank Marcel Rochfort for pulling his fire truck out of the mud after they were finished and also the MLVFD for donating hose to him. He appreciates having the extra hose in case of another emergency like (Friday).”
The fire, noted as being north of Duckworth Lake on the east side of Highway 97, was attended by members of the BC Wildfire Service, who said the fire was brought under control by Friday afternoon.
The weekend forecast by Environment Canada calls for wind southeast 30 km/h gusting to 50 Saturday afternoon becoming light the evening.
It is expected to be windy Sunday as well.
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