Careless use of fireworks is said to be the cause of a forest fire that started in Pender Hill Park Wednesday afternoon.
Sunshine Coast RCMP said four youths were playing with fireworks and had ascended a steep summit near the intersection of Hotel Lake Road and Garden Bay Road in order to launch the fireworks out over Hotel Lake.
"Upon launching one of their rockets, the wind caused it to fly into forested area near the top of the hill," said Const. Jason Aho. "The youths attempted to put out the fire, but were unsuccessful. One of the youths called 911 to alert authorities to the blaze. Upon attendance by emergency personnel, the youths and their guardians presented themselves to firefighters and police to admit their actions."
Aho said paramedics treated one of the youths for smoke inhalation at the scene.
"The youths were co-operative with the investigation, admitting their part in starting the fire and stating that they wished to take responsibility for their actions," said Aho. "All of the youths will be dealt with through the Sunshine Coast restorative justice program."
While police questioned the youths, fire crews attacked the blaze from the air and on the ground.
According to the Coastal Fire Centre, three helicopters responded to the scene, dropping water on the fire while fire retardant was dropped from a bomber operating out of Comox. Firefighters from the B.C. Forest Service, along with firefighters from Pender Harbour, Halfmoon Bay and Sechelt attacked the blaze on the ground. At one point there were approximately 60 personnel on the ground fighting the blaze.
"The air tanker was brought in initially to put down a retardant box around the fire to keep it contained within that box. This allowed the personnel to get in there with equipment," said fire information officer Donna MacPherson on Thursday morning. "The terrain was quite steep, so we needed time to get our crews in place."
MacPherson said the fire department had personnel on site Wednesday evening and crews were back at it Thursday morning."Two helicopters were in the area and the forest service will have one initial attack crew of three and two crews of five on scene," said MacPherson. "The fire is still at .3 of a hectare and does not appear to be getting any bigger. At one point on Wednesday it was exhibiting rank two fire behaviour, which is described as the ground smoking and on fire. That moves into the fuel, like small shrubs. It flames up and then subsides. It was cooler overnight and the morning has been cooler, so now it's classified as a rank one fire."
She said at no point was there ever a risk to property.
"There were some houses below the fire, but the fire was moving uphill and was not strong enough to move rapidly," she said. "We're very fortunate."
