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By Bev Boyle

The other day, I was driving to Forest Grove. When I got to the part of Canim-Hendrix Road where the Buffalo Creek fire of May 2009 was; I was horrified to see a bunch of flames and fire crawling up trees. This wasn't just a little brush removal, I thought, and pulled over.

I decided I should phone the police, just in case the fire hadn't been reported. As I was on the phone, a gentleman in fire gear yelled out at me that he had a fire permit and everything was under control. Talking to the RCMP dispatcher, I related that it seemed a little big to be “under control”. By that time fire was spreading high into the trees and more people had pulled over, with everyone agreeing that it didn't look safe. The lady who lives next door to the property that was burning, also pulled over and she, too, was concerned.

The police officer showed up and she also didn't like the look of the fire and called the fire department. It turns out that the fire was under control and everything was fine.

It is strongly my opinion, that if someone is going to start a fire, that the fire permit should be displayed clearly in front of the property, to avoid people from getting skittish about another forest fire, especially when it is in the same area of a previous bad fire.

How many people did that guy have to yell out to that he had a permit? Does it not stand to reason that if the permit had been staked out on the edge of the road or property, people would not have pulled over on the side of the road to report the fire?

The government loves signage. You see it everywhere. Why not signs to inform the public that a raging fire is really under control and the owner of the property has a permit?!