A fire at an encampment sent smoke across the lawn in front of Kamloops city hall on Monday morning, Oct. 31, 2022.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Reid Hamer-Jackson

A Kamloops homeless shelter director says recent fires in outdoor homeless tents shows that more shelter spaces are needed.

Police responded and are investigating after a body was found following a fire at the back of a closed Kamloops restaurant. The investigation continues but no details have been released on the person’s identity. Kamloops spokesperson Crystal Evelyn said they don’t believe criminality was involved.

Last week, one person was taken to the hospital with burn injuries after a fire broke out at a mini-storage facility in Kamloops. A fire also started in a homeless camp outside of Kamloops city hall.

"It's something I've been talking to my managing director about," said Nyasha Manyane, operations manager of The Mustard Seed. "At the end of the day, I think we just need more spaces in shelters."

Kamloops fire chief Kenneth Uzeloc said there’s been a slight increase in fires started in homeless camps this fall. They typically respond to more calls in the cooler months with fires tied to structures among the homeless population.

“It always seems to get more complicated in the winter months when it’s cold, when they are using tents or makeshift structures to try and keep the winds out whereas in the summer they’re not so much using that,” he said.

“I’m sure the amount of shelter space has something to do with it but there is a population that even if there is shelter space, they wouldn’t use it.”

He said the lack of shelter space could be affecting those wanting to come indoors.

“I’m sure there’s people now moving to more tents and make-shift structures so if they’re cooking or trying to keep warm then those structures can be affected, especially if they’re not doing it in a safe manner.”

Yesterday, a fire in a tent sparked in the 400 block of Tranquille Road. Firefighters initially responded to burning complaints Nov. 7 and found people using 2x4 lumber and a candle to keep warm that had to be extinguished due to safety concerns. Two days later, firefighters responded to a fire at the same tent, he said.

“We do our best to provide information and try to keep it safe for them but you know, they’re going to do what they need to do to stay warm,” Uzeloc said.

Late last month, the Canadian Mental Health Association pulled out from running two Kamloops winter shelters, leaving non-profits scrambling to fill the void. Two emergency winter shelters opened earlier this week, run by the Mustard Seed and Out of the Cold Kamloops at Kamloops Yacht Club and Stuart Wood Elementary shelter sites, roughly 10 days after shelters were originally supposed to open. 

“These are people who aren't well. They're starting fires (outside) and they are potentially a danger indoors, too,” said CMHA executive director Alfred Achoba.

Kamloops isn’t the only community that’s seen recent fires in tents and at homeless camps. In Kelowna last month, a homeless camp burned down along Enterprise Way. It was deemed suspicious. The fire department also saved a man after his tent caught fire in mid-October along the Okanagan Rail Trail.

Assistant fire chief Mike Hawley said anecdotally firefighters are seeing more fires starting in temporary structures but the fire department used to classify them differently so the data is hard to track. In response to this increase, firefighters are handing out blankets, gloves and other emergency warming supplies and educating individuals where they can go to stay warm.

"The city has a supply and we're handing them out. If someone has a fire going and it needs to be extinguished, priority is the safety of the people. If we're taking away that heat supply we need to give them a way of coping with it," he said.

"It feels like to me there are certainly more of these little, not even really nuisance fires, it's just people trying to stay warm."

The fire department also saw a significant increase to the number of dispatch calls throughout the summer to the outdoor shelter operating on Bailie Road next to the Okanagan Rail Trail, up from one call in 2021 to 12 in 2022 from May through September. In September, the city-designated outdoor shelter was operating at almost twice its capacity.

The fire department has also responded to a drastic increase in outdoor fires in the last five years. In the summer months, from May to end of September, they only responded to 20 calls in 2017. In 2021 and 2022, the numbers more than doubled to 56 and 55 calls.

Kamloops and Okanagan homeless shelters recently sent a letter to city councils across the region stating they are fed up with the temporary fixes for winter each year. They called on municipal governments, B.C. Housing and Interior Health Authority to step up amid an "unrealized promise" of year-round shelters and the downloading of health-care responsibilities on shelter operators.

Kelowna’s Gospel Mission is currently running a temporary winter homeless shelter with 30 out of 60 beds available due to staffing issues.

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