Difficult brush fire put out in West Vancouver

WEST VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s out now, but steep and rocky terrain proved to be a challenge for firefighters in West Vancouver on Friday.

Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Bush says crews were called out to a brush fire in the Parthenon Park area around 1:30 p.m. When they arrived, he says they found the fire was partly burning off a cliff in a “difficult” location.

“Our crews have been overturning the dust, cooling it down just watering it down, wetting it down, giving it a real good soak-down so that if there’s any embers or any hot spots in there that they be snuffed and extinguished.”

It took about three hours to put the flames out.

Because of where the fire was actually located, the only way firefighters would have be able to reach the fire, he explains, would have been by rappelling down with harnesses.

Members did have help from the Vancouver Fire department.

“We had two fire boats attend, and they were able to hit the areas where our crews were not able to access. So they were able to hit it from the water side. They did a great job,” he adds.

“It demonstrates two things. It demonstrates the partnerships between the Lower Mainland fire departments — predominantly the North Shore, but with Vancouver as well. But it also demonstrates how dry it is out there, and how much people have to use caution and care and be responsible out in our wooded areas and parks.”

No homes or buildings were damaged by the fire.

There’s no word on what may have caused the fire, but Bush suspects it may have been human-caused.

“It’s so difficult to determine cause for something like that. I have my suspicions that it is human-caused, there’s just no natural reason for something like that to catch fire. There’s been no lightning or anything.”