Roaring flames ripped by a tent on the Fairview Homeless Encampment in Penticton, B.C., at round 10 a.m. Monday.
It was the second such hearth on the web site that very same morning, the place hours earlier, one other tent additionally went up in flames.
“One was an precise hearth. It was a fire, a chimney coming by it,” mentioned Mike Larsson, Penticton’s hearth chief. “The opposite one was — it appears to be a propane equipment that was getting used.”
Larsson mentioned in each instances, the fires had been getting used to maintain heat.
Days later, charred remnants of the tent fires remained on web site as a reminder of the shut calls.
“We’re fortunate at the moment that within the fires we’ve had over the past yr that no one’s been significantly injured or killed,” Larsson mentioned.
In keeping with the hearth chief, crews have responded to fire-related calls on the encampment about 80 instances since final March.
However with the climate about to get even colder, the danger is rising together with concern for human life and property.
Town, nevertheless, is restricted in what it might do because the encampment is on land belonging to the Ministry of Transportation and Transit.
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“Jurisdictionally, we’ve some challenges there,” mentioned Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield. “That falls beneath the purview of the provincial authorities to be answerable for the encampment on their land.”
Larsson says hearth officers conduct common security walks on the web site.
“My prevention crew and myself are there frequently,” Larsson mentioned. “And we’re seeing extra of those propane home equipment and extra hearth pits inside tents.”
Regardless of the hearth hazards, Larsson mentioned their palms are additionally considerably tied.
“Our native hearth and security bylaws don’t occur there,” Larsson mentioned. “And so what we’re doing is simply an schooling piece, not an enforcement piece.”
International Information contacted the ministries of transportation and housing on how they plan to deal with the protection issues.
The housing ministry responded on behalf of each, with Minister Christine Boyle stating in an electronic mail, “It’s clear that the present encampment at Fairview Highway and Hwy 97 in Penticton isn’t a secure place for folks to shelter, nor secure for the neighborhood and vacationers within the space.”
Boyle added, “We are going to proceed working with the Ministry of Transportation and Transit to soundly shut the encampment.”
“We stay up for their progress on that,” Bloomfield mentioned when requested if that’s one thing he’d wish to see.
Whereas area on the metropolis’s two homeless shelters is at capability, Bloomfield mentioned extra areas shall be added when temperatures dip under – 10.
“No person desires to see encampments round communities and I feel that we’re no totally different to some other neighborhood in that regard,” Bloomfield mentioned.
“It exhibits that there’s a lack of assist within the lack of housing for these people.”
Final February, a fireplace on the Fairview encampment was answerable for the destruction of two RVs and the harm of 1 different on the close by Leisureland RV Centre.
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