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The city of Lethbridge, Alta., is making a plea for members of the public to report any fires they spot at homeless encampments in the Lethbridge River Valley.
The plea comes after crews from Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services were forced to scramble last Tuesday to put out two grass fires, one that came within metres of homes in English Oaks Estates, near Scenic Drive and 10 Avenue South, forcing some to be evacuated as a precaution.
Investigators believe the fire started at an encampment in Lethbridge River Valley.
“On a beautiful, sunny day with the wind howling like that, it was the perfect storm, as we would say, that nearly led to a deadly storm,” said Sgt. Ryan Darroch of the Lethbridge Police Service.
Firefighters in Lethbridge are seen mopping up hot spots from a fire that investigators believe started at a homeless encampment near Scenic Drive and 10 Avenue South on Jan. 13.
Global News
Just as fire crews were mopping up that fire, they were called out to another fire, just blocks away near Mountain View Cemetery.
The fire danger prompted city officials to put a fire ban in place for the Lethbridge River Valley, which means open fires are not allowed.
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“The fire risk in the city right now with the weather we’ve been having late December and now in January, (and) very abnormal, warm temperatures. Our fire ratings are extreme in the River Valley,” said Lethbridge Chief Fire Marshal Troy Hicks.
With insufficient employees to constantly patrol all areas of the River Valley, Hicks is asking the public to be their eyes and ears.
“If you’re out in the River Valley and you see something that seems out of the ordinary, or that you don’t think should be down there being in an encampment or somebody just having a small area where they have a fire going, let someone know,” said Hicks.
With the fire danger in the Lethbridge River Valley considered extreme, the city is asking anyone who sees a fire at a homeless encampment to report it by calling 311, or 911 if it’s an emergency.
Global News file photo
Anyone who sees a fire at an encampment is being asked to call 311, or if it’s an emergency, 911.
“I know we get a lot of phone calls directly to my office (from) people who are intimidated to call 911 (but) 911 is there for that reason,” said Hicks.
“Even the amount of time it takes just to call 311 to get transferred to my number or anything like that, that fire could get that much more out of control. So when in doubt, call 911, that’s why we’re there,” added Hicks.
“We’d rather go out and find that it’s nothing than not get the phone call and then have an incident like we had last week.”
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