First responders attended not just one, but two separate fires at the encampment along Wharf Avenue in Downtown Sechelt on Jan. 19.
There were no injuries reported from the fires, but one ambulance was called to the scene as a precaution.
On Friday evening, Sechelt Fire Department was alerted to a fire at the encampment on Wharf Avenue, next to the Sechelt Shelter. The fire department's nighttime duty crew attended with one battalion officer, five firefighters and one fire engine.
Acting Fire Chief Dwight Davison said the firefighters who attended reported a 15-square-foot fire consisting of tent pieces, wooden pallets, fencing and other debris, and that the fire was against a shipping container with various materials inside.
Once the exterior fire was extinguished, fire crews opened the shipping container to find a second, smaller fire burning inside – started by the conductive heat radiating from the exterior fire.
Davison confirmed that nobody in the encampment was in the affected area during the fire.
“Due to the nature of the fire and the debris involved, the investigation is going to come up as unsolved or undetermined,” Davison said.
He added that there were multiple flammable objects such as one-pound propane tanks, battery packs and battery chargers plugged into extension cords, and that someone may have potentially been trying to heat something up or to stay warm.
Davison added that the Sechelt Fire Department’s fire prevention staff have been coordinating with the District of Sechelt as well as RCMP in regards to cleaning up the encampment.
BC Housing response
With the loss of this encampment the question remains, what will happen to the people who were living there?
BC Housing, which owns the property, told Coast Reporter in an email that due to the potential health and safety hazards the encampment land currently poses, security fencing is being installed around the land area where the encampment had been established so that it can be removed and cleaned of any debris.
“While encampments may offer a sense of community for some people, they are not a suitable form of long-term shelter,” said the statement. “BC Housing is working with local partners to offer housing to people currently sheltering outdoors at the encampment.
“It is our understanding that all but one of those people who had previously been sheltering in this area voluntarily relocated to shelter or from shelter into housing in recent weeks. Outreach teams will continue to offer housing to the remaining individuals at the encampment.”
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
