Nanaimo firefighters fought and contained a brush fire in an area near Jingle Pot Road early Saturday afternoon.
According to Martin Drakeley, Nanaimo Fire Rescue assistant chief of operations, the blaze began on a trail just off of Sarum Rise Way.
#fire jingle pot/sarum rise way area in @cityofnanaimo pic.twitter.com/62FCBhgfUP
— Karl Yu (@KarlYuBulletin) July 4, 2015
“There's a trail that runs directly through,” said Drakeley. “The wind was blowing to the south at the time, so it started in [a] corner and obviously with the wind, the heat and the dryness, it took off extremely fast.”
Drakeley said crews arrived on scene quickly and formed a “foam break” between nearby apartments.
“We were able to do an attack on both sides and pitch it off,” said Drakeley.
The fire was contained and mop up was being done before 2 p.m. and Drakeley said it could've been human caused.
“It's hard to say at this point, I'm going to say human [caused] just because the bush doesn't spontaneously ignite, but we're going to get our FLPD division in and have them take a look at it,” said Drakeley.
With the hot weather and dry conditions, a fire can be started by even a carelessly tossed cigarette. Drakeley said it is important for smokers to be mindful when they put out their butts out.
In his estimation, there could be three more months of the dry, hot, windy weather.
“If this is any indication, we won't have any green space left, so we want people to be really vigilant with throwing smokes out of vehicle windows, on trails, even on streets where the wind can blow them into some vegetation and start fires,” said Drakeley.
Four stations and one call-in crew – 32 members – were on scene Saturday, according to Drakeley.