A substantial increase in burning complaints in Duncan is leading to some changes in how they are handled.
Duncan fire chief Landis Carmichael told council at its meeting on May 6 that burning complaints, which are mostly intentionally set garbage fires and/or warming and camp fires, increased from 17 in the first quarter of 2023 to 66 during the same time period in 2024, which is a whopping 388 per cent increase.
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“If we continue on this trajectory of [burning] calls this year, we will be on track to hit 844 calls [by the end of the year], which would be another 23 per cent increase year after year,” Carmichael said.
“Due to the extreme increase of burning complaints, the city is working to implement an arrangement to use city bylaw enforcement during the day to answer some of the burning complaints, as well as a security contractor for these responses at night.”
Carmichael said the fire department will see a decrease in responding to burning complaints when the new response system is implemented, but both the fire department and the RCMP would be activated if required by bylaw officers and the security contractors.
Carmichael said the fire department, which currently has 23 members, received a total of 652 calls for service in 2023, which included 458 emergency calls as well as 194 duty-officer calls, which are considered less serious in nature, like a burning complaint.
He said a total of 143 calls for service to the department were made in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 212 for the same time period in 2024, which is a 47 per cent increase over last year.
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“That’s a pretty dramatic increase,” Carmichael said.
Carmichael also reminded the public that summer and wildfire season is just around the corner, and land owners are encouraged to take steps to make their properties more resilient to wildfire by implementing FireSmart and fire-safe principles.
These include creating a fire-defensible space around your home; pruning back dead branches and clearing leaves and woody debris away from structures; moving firewood and other combustible materials away from structures; and keeping grass and other vegetative growth trimmed short as plants that are green today will be brown, dry fuel in late summer.
