Sechelt's fire department responded to 12 illegal campfires Thanksgiving weekend

Between Oct. 4 and 11, Sechelt Volunteer Fire Department responded to 17 fire calls related to illegal burning in its service area. Fire Chief Trevor Pike told Coast Reporter that those included 12 illegal campfires over the long weekend and five of those turned into blazes involving surrounding vegetation.

“This is above average compared to previous years and obviously the drier than normal conditions don’t help,” Pike wrote in an Oct.11 email.  “The bottom line is that people in the community continue to make poor choices when it comes to having a campfire during a complete ban and dry conditions. This is further complicated by the water shortage issue.”

Mid-day on Saturday, Oct. 8, a coast-wide open burning ban was put in place by the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s Emergency Operations Centre, as a result of the ongoing drought situation in the area.

In response to a question about where illegal burns are happening, Pike wrote “most of these fires occur in the downtown area near the homeless encampments, however, we also have issues on the local beaches and sporadically throughout the community." Preliminary department statistics indicate that up to September, 39 per cent of the year’s calls for assistance to the department were from the downtown neighbourhood.

Calls double in three years

“Our call volume has more than doubled in the past three years. In 2019, we attended 195 emergency callouts. That number increased to 262 in 2020. In 2021 we responded to 411 calls not including the additional 140 duty officer callouts. This year, we are on route to an even higher call volume,” Pike wrote. Data he provided showed the call count to the end of August of this year is at 280.

In Pike's assessment, the increased call volumes can be attributed to a variety of sources. He indicated the major factors are the BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS or BC Ambulance) staffing shortage, the opioid crisis and the increasing number of homeless people in the area without adequate shelter and other necessities.

Support for that view came in the form of department counts on EHS requests for assists for substance overdoses and with supportive housing clients as well as fire calls “related to homelessness.” The total for 2021 was 53. To the end of August 2022 the number is 85. 

Department restructuring 

The impact of call volume increases is that the complete volunteer fire response system is no longer sustainable in today’s Sechelt, in the chief’s opinion. 

“The additional call volume definitely has major impacts on our volunteer firefighters. We have one of the most dedicated and committed groups of volunteers that any community could ever ask for. But even the most dedicated volunteers can only do so much. We are experiencing member burnout for the first time and we will soon be restructuring our staff to help meet the ever-increasing call volume and other community services that we provide,” Pike wrote.