A fire has hit UBC’s ocean-side forest. According to fire officials, the blaze is not yet under control, but no buildings are in danger.
Officials confirmed that a single tree is on fire, and that surrounding trees are also in danger.
“We have a fair bit of territory between the forest area and the residences. And we also have Marine Drive between [them],” said Deputy Fire Chief Les Szikali. “We have a fairly significantly sized tree fire. It being dark, we have a very difficult time getting crews in there.”
Szikali said that a hovercraft on the Georgia Strait was communicating with crews to spot the blaze. “The way we’re getting information right now is there’s a hovercraft down on the water, and they’re spotting for us and calling out what they’re seeing.”
“We’ve got ground crews working through the underbrush trying to contain the fire. And right now, they feel it’s spreading a bit to the north side,” he said.
According to Szikali, a forest service crew from Cultus Lake is coming to aid in stopping the fire.
Early reports on Twitter claimed that the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) may have been threatened. However, Szikali said that MOA is not under threat.
“The Museum of Anthropology is actually quite a distance from the fire; [it's] about probably a half to three-quarters kilometers around Marine Drive.”
Szikali went on to say that they will be pulling back fire crews from around MOA because they do not feel the building is threatened.
Szkali said that dry conditions have helped the fire spread. “The beginning of summer was very wet, [but] since August, really, we’ve had a very dry spell,” he said. “For the last six weeks, it has been very dry, so it’s not very shocking that this would happen.”
He would not comment on the possible cause of the fire. “[It may have been] small campfires, people living in the bush area, but I don’t want to speculate on that.”
According to Szikali, fire crews will continue to be at UBC for “hours.”
Update
According to UBC Campus Security, residence advisers have been advised of the fire. However, students living in residence have not.
—with files from Jonny Wakefield, Brian Platt, Andrew Bates and Geoff Lister
(+4 rating, 2 votes)
Loading ...
