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Lumby Fire Department douses potential wildfire

Site was barely out of their jurisdiction, but department put out fire at request of BC Wildfire
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Lumby Fire Department was on target when it came to putting out a potential wildfire on the weekend.

Two adults had been doing some target shooting with a small calibre rifle on the Nicklen Forest Service Road, off Harris Creek Road, on the back side of Satellite Hill Sunday afternoon. The pair had been shooting at an old stump when one noticed some dust coming out of the stump.

Upon closer inspection, the dust turned out to be smoke from a small fire in the stump. The pair immediately called the Lumby Fire Department.

“When we got the call, we thought it was in our jurisdiction but it turned out it was just barely outside our area, but we stayed to put out the fire at the request of BC Wildfire,” said Lumby Fire Chief Tony Clayton, intrigued by how the fire started.

READ MORE: Lumby Fire Department extinguishes motor home blaze

“I’ve never seen that before. The two adults did everything they could to suppress and put out the fire. It was a fairly good sized dead stump, and the fire was about three metres by three metres when we got there.”

The fire was part of a busy weekend for the Lumby department which included dealing with two motorcycle accidents on consecutive days.

READ MORE: Fire at Lumby Tolko plant quickly doused

The first on Friday, on Highway 6, was relatively minor but the second one on Saturday, also on Highway 6 near Keefer Lake, was more serious.

“We had to use our rope rescue equipment to assist the injured rider,” said Clayton.

The male motorcyclist was transported by the equipment up an embankment to a waiting helicopter, which then drove the biker to a spot to meet an air ambulance.



roger@vernonmorningstar.com

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Roger Knox

About the Author: Roger Knox

I am a journalist with more than 30 years of experience in the industry. I started my career in radio and have spent the last 21 years working with Black Press Media.
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