The Sechelt Fire Department says a beach fire that had been left smouldering caused a bigger blaze that destroyed a small homeless camp May 25.
Emergency crews were called out to the beach the foot of Shorncliffe Avenue shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday after a plume of smoke was spotted rising from an area in front of a vacant lot slated for development.
Fire Chief Trevor Pike said a group of homeless people had been camping on the beach, where they’d built a small shelter with driftwood and set up tents.
“They left with a small, smouldering fire and that fire spread inside the shelter, started the shelter on fire and got into a couple of logs and some underbrush,” Pike said.
It took the 17 firefighters on scene only a few minutes to knock the fire down, Pike said, and it was completely out within an hour.
RCMP said no one was hurt, but the tents and some other items at the camp were destroyed. RCMP turned the investigation over to the fire department after determining the cause of the blaze was not suspicious.
Pike said the fire department has noticed an increase in people camping or living rough in Sechelt, including along the BC Hydro right of way near Salmon Drive and a vacant lot on shíshálh Nation lands beside Sechelt Hospital.
“There is an associated fire risk because these folks have fires to stay warm and quite often leave them unattended, or they don’t extinguish them before they leave,” he said.
District of Sechelt communications manager Julie Rogers also said district officials have noticed more people camping in public places.
“Our bylaw officers do regular patrols of our parks and work with the RCMP and the Raincity outreach worker as needed. Our bylaw officers and public works teams spend several hours a week clearing out abandoned camps,” Rogers said in an email to Coast Reporter.
