Becker fires suspicious
Alarm bells are being rung over an ongoing series of fires in a Vernon park.
Firefighters received reports of a blaze in Becker Park at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, the third such incident in about three weeks.
“There are conditions that are very suspicious,” said Lawrie Skolrood, deputy fire chief, of a cause.
“There is evidence of a start in the grass.”
Becker Park is located next to the Vernon Curling Club.
Thursday’s fire covered an area 20-metres-by-four metres, but Skolrood says the potential could have been more significant if it had got into longer grass.
Skolrood doesn’t believe the fires are a result of people camping in the park trying to keep warm or cook food.
“It seems to be more random than people in the park. There seems to have been an effort to get the grass going,” he said, adding anyone using an ignition source should be careful.
“I’m glad we put effort into modifying the fuel load (in recent years) but there’s still a lot of risk. We’re going to give it more attention.”
The RCMP are involved in the investigation with the Vernon Fire Department.
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