View Royal fire chief frustrated by campfire-turned-wildfire in Thetis Lake Park

Vancouver Island is experiencing one of the worst wildfire seasons in modern history, according to BC Wildfire Service. And nearly every fire this year was human-caused and preventable.

On Wednesday morning, Capital Regional District park rangers made their way into Thetis Lake Park to mop up what is left of a wildfire that broke out Tuesday afternoon on Seymour Hill.

Paul Hurst, View Royal’s fire chief, is beyond frustrated.

“People are either oblivious to the hazard or they just don’t care,” he said.

The fire was first called in by a Harbour Air crew that happened to be flying over the area -- caused by a careless campfire. It tied up fire crews from Colwood, Langford and View Royal into the night.

“We had four other emergencies during this fire that had to be given to other agencies to deal with,” said Hurst.

A forestry helicopter was called in on standby incase the fire got away from ground crews, taking that critical resource away from other wildfires burning on the island.

“People need to take into consideration that there are limited resources,” said the fire chief.

So far this year, the Coastal Fire Centre says 51 wildfires have been reported on Vancouver Island.

“I think the majority of these 51 fires are human-caused unfortunately,” said Mike McCulley, an information officer with the BC Wildfire Service.

The focus right now for the Coastal Fire Centre is fighting a 3.4 hectare blaze burning one kilometre away from the town of Port Hardy.

“We definitely know this is human-caused fire, completely avoidable,” said McCulley. “The direct cause is still under investigation.”

The Cameron Bluffs fire that shut down Highway 4 for more than two weeks is also believed to be human-caused. That closure had a devastating impact on west coast communities like Port Alberni, which just completed a business impact survey.

“We only had 55 respondents, but from the revenue from the 49 people that actually gave a number it was close to $1 million,” said Jolleen Dick, Alberni Chamber of Commerce CEO. “So that’s only 55 businesses out of the hundreds of businesses that we have in the Alberni Valley alone.”

Now that the highway has reopened to single-lane, alternating traffic, the community is on the rebound.

“We had a low rainfall winter, we’ve had a hot spring,” said Hurst, which creates ideal wildfire conditions across Vancouver Island and the rest of the province.

“I can’t understand how people can be that naive to the issue,” said the fire chief, singling out whoever thought that a campfire was a good idea on Tuesday night, in a remote part of Thetis Lake Park.