Mount Maxwell fire
Flames consume parts of Mount Maxwell Provincial Park on Monday. The fire, which covered some five hectares of land, was extinguished by Tuesday afternoon, while hot spots were tended to.
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Updated: October 15, 2009 9:42 AM
Approximately five hectares of Mount Maxwell Provincial Park land were burned in a fire that began Sunday and continued until Tuesday morning.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the fire was under control and only “hot spots” remained to be managed, said Salt Spring Fire Chief Tom Bremner.
Bremner said while the cause of the fire remains unknown, human interactions are suspected and the official cause is under investigation.
Fire damage was restricted to vegetation, he said.
A Vancouver Island resident reported the fire to the Coastal Fire Centre in Parksville on Sunday.
The B.C. Forest Service, which is responsible for dealing with fires in the Mt. Maxwell park region of Salt Spring, sent firefighters and a helicopter to douse the flames using buckets of water from Maxwell Lake.
The lake was the only source of water available, as there were no fire hydrants nearby or road accesses to the site, said Brian McIntosh, acting regional wildlife control officer at the Coastal Fire Centre.
“It was a tough area to get into and to work on,” said Bremner, who sent Salt Spring firefighters to assist forest service crews on Sunday and Monday.
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