(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
August 18, 2017 - 12:50 PM
WEST KELOWNA – West Kelowna Fire Rescue can’t confirm arson was involved in either of the two suspicious fires that happened in Glenrosa the last two days, only a few hundred meters apart.
The latest fire in Glen Canyon Regional Park started last night, Aug. 17, around 5 p.m. in a heavily wooded and steep area of the park.
Despite already being deployed to another emergency when the first reports came in, a crew and truck from Lakeview Heights was able to break away and access the fire from Aberdeen Road in Glenrosa.
West Kelowna Fire Rescue chief Jason Brolund says the fire was roughly 300 meters up the canyon from another fire they put out the day before.
"We’re very concerned in that it's two fires in two days," he says. "The fires were in the same vicinity but in two very different spots. Based on the preliminary investigation there is no connection."
With help from B.C. Wildfire Service and early reports from members of the community, crews were able to keep both from spreading. The first fire reached a size of roughly 200' by 200', the second was roughly 50' by 100'.
Brolund says although there is so far no connection between them, the RCMP are involved. An ignition source has not been found for either fires, but Broland says they were human-caused.
“Neither of them are considered arson although both are considered suspicious,” Broland says, adding that the public played a key role in both cases.
“I just want to say thank you to the public for their vigilance,” he says. “We were able to get there while they were small because multiple people let us know as soon as they saw something wasn’t right.”
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News from © InfoTel News Ltd, 2017