People who violated the provincewide campfire ban will be paying the price after six tickets were issued on the Sunshine Coast during the first week of July.
Conservation officers on the Sunshine Coast issued three fines related to fires over the weekend, as high temperatures and dry weather continued following a record-breaking heat wave.
The incidents were in Sechelt and the Halfmoon Bay area, including a campfire lit at the Homesite Creek Campground and Recreation Site, conservation officer Leyland Klassen told Coast Reporter.
Two of the fines, for lighting campfires during the ban, were $1,150 each.
The third fine was for mishandling a burning substance, when someone was found with briquettes in a non-approved container, at $575.
Combined, those three fines totalled $2,875 – a fraction of the $25,300 in campfire ban violations the COS ticketed across the province over the weekend.
“Wildfire prevention is a shared responsibility,” Klassen said via email.
Elsewhere on the Coast, first responders and the RCMP were called to four other reports of fires.
Sunshine Coast Regional District communications manager Aidan Buckley told Coast Reporter there was one campfire in Egmont, which the fire department extinguished. They brought more signs about the fire ban to the area the next day.
RCMP issued a ticket in Roberts Creek, where there was also a report of fireworks.
In the Gibsons area, there were two campfires, and one ticket was issued.
As well, on July 5, RCMP officers issued a $1,150 ticket to a visitor from the Lower Mainland for hosting a beach fire along Ocean Beach Esplanade, according to the Sunshine Coast RCMP’s weekly incident report. The group of four people were told to extinguish the fire, and officers noted they had no bucket of water or means of extinguishing the fire nearby.
RCMP and conservation officers across B.C. will continue targeted patrols to help prevent fires and enforce the campfire ban. The ban began on June 30 and will continue until Oct. 15 unless otherwise lifted.
Violations can be reported to the RAPP hotline at 1-877-952-7277, and wildfires, unattended campfires or open burning violations can be reported at 1-800-663-5555.
