A fire that shut down part of the Stanley Park Causeway in Vancouver Tuesday morning appears to have been sparked by a discarded cigarette, according to fire crews.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services tells CityNews multiple calls came in about smoke along the causeway after 5 a.m.
“Crews got out there with our engines and we do have the ability — we have two ATVs equipped with water, as well, that can go into smaller paths. So we did go in by ATV and got access to it,” explained VFRS Capt. Matt Trudeau.
“It was challenging just finding the fire, where the exact spot was amongst the smoke. But crews got there and then extinguished it, containing as much of it as possible. It didn’t spread to a large area but, obviously, in dry conditions, that is the concern.”
The causeway reopened fully around 7 a.m.
Trudeau is urging smokers to take extra care, especially given the dry conditions.
“The reminder is really for anybody, at your home, out somewhere, the only place you should be discarding cigarettes is in either water or in sand with nothing else in it, that’s in a pot. Hopefully, people are not doing that out on the beach somewhere or on the side of the road — that’s going to be on your own property,” he explained.
“You need to discard that properly and that’s by either bringing it back to your home, putting it in water, putting it in wet sand, and making sure that it’s not with any flowers or any vegetation. We’ve seen a number of instances too where people are putting out their cigarette butts into their planter on a balcony and that igniting after a period of time as well.”
In Vancouver, smoking is prohibited in parks, seawalls, and beaches.
Per the Smoking Regulation Bylaw in Vancouver, the minimum fine for smoking in a park or other regulated outdoor space is $250.
-With files from Srushti Gangdev