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Small forest fire erupts near homes in Abbotsford, B.C.

Canadian Press Article online since August 12nd 2008, 23:00
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Small forest fire erupts near homes in Abbotsford, B.C.
A helicopter drops water on a fire burning on Sumas Mountain in Abbotsford, B.C., on Wednesday August 13, 2008. The fire was not yet contained and was burning 1000 metres from area homes. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - A resident living near a pile of logging debris that went up in flames on an increasingly developed mountainside Wednesday said she had to call three times before anyone would come and fight the blaze.
A spokesman for the Abbotsford Fire Department said they reacted to Tracy Gosling's first call but needed time to figure out how to come at the fire on Sumas Mountain, in a forested area dotted with acreages with new subdivisions not far away.
Water bombers and two-dozen ground-based firefighters appeared to have the 1.5-hectare fire on Sumas Mountain under control by the afternoon.
Gosling, whose home is a few hundred metres from the fire, said she first called 911 around 8 a.m. to report smoke coming from the forestry slash pile.
She said she called twice more before aerial tankers showed up.
"It just started with a little trickle (of smoke), I almost felt silly phoning," Gosling, 41, said in an interview.
A fire truck drove by but nothing happened, she said.
"An hour later, the smoke was more and I didn't see anyone up there."
So Gosling called 911 again but said she was told it was not clear who had jurisdiction over the fire and how to gain access to it.
"I left it at that, and an hour later, it had burst into a ball of flames and I was starting to get a little more nervous, and still nobody up there," she said.
Fed up with waiting as the fire grew, she finally called the B.C. government's wildfire line, which dispatched a crew in a helicopter.
"Shortly after that, our private air show started with the planes (dumping fire retardant), but if they would have attacked it when I phoned at 8 o'clock, it would've been pretty easy to take care of," said Gosling.
Abbotsford fire-prevention officer Lt. Ted Main said efforts began immediately to tackle the fire.
"We sent crews up there but because of the terrain, it was really hard for our crews to try and pinpoint where the smoke was coming from," he said.
Abbotsford contacted the province's coastal fire service, which took an hour to fly a crew into the area, said Main.
"(Gosling) called like three or for times and we told dispatch we did have crews in the area," he said, adding they needed to find a logging road to reach the site.
"The problem also was that it was in Crown land and we weren't sure if it was part of our area or part of Crown land.
"Once they got up there (by helicopter) it made it really simple to pinpoint exactly where the fire was. Unfortunately by that time it was actually burning."
B.C. fire information officer Breanna Carey said the fire was attacked with five aerial tankers, followed up by bucket-equipped helicopters and firefighters on the ground.
"Right now it's looking to be under pretty good control," she said. "We wouldn't consider it 100-per-cent contained but we have a pretty good grasp of the fire."
Carey said the fire, about a third of the way up Sumas Mountain, was about a kilometre from the nearest homes, but eyewitness Ron Dahl said some homes are only a few hundred metres away.
"It doesn't look too dangerous to me right now," said Dahl. "They've got a helicopter flying over top, dropping water on it.
"But if it does get out of control, there's some houses down less than an eighth of a mile lower than the hill that could be threatened by the fire."
Brad Thompson, 49, who lives a short distance away, separated by thick forest, drove up his lane to find towering flames and aerial tankers dropping fire retardant.
"Right in the middle there, (the flames) were probably 30 or 40 feet high," he said. "It was right in the bushes, and that's what I was kind of concerned about."
Main said the area was logged about a year ago and the contractor left the debris pile, which he said is an apparent violation of forestry regulations.
"The coast regional fire service will be looking into the cause of the fire and the circumstances behind the area and how it got to that point," he said.
Abbotsford, a city of about 131,000, is about 60 kilometres east of Vancouver. Sumas Mountain is transitioning from wilderness to residential neighbourhoods.
Main said the fire site is more than a kilometre from the main area of development but there are a number of secluded homes nearby.
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