Cameron Grant looks on as KFR member attack Wednesday's grass fire (image credit - Marcia Julian)

By Michael Reeve

WEST END GRASS FIRE

‘It almost turned into steam’: Neighbour recounts attempts to dose Wednesday grass fire in West End

Apr 20, 2023 | 4:07 PM

KAMLOOPS — Cameron Grant did what anyone would do in the face of losing his home to fire — he grabbed his garden hose and attempted to battle a raging wildfire quickly moving toward his backyard.

“The first instinct was to try to dose the fire and I realized that using 3/4 inch garden hose, trying to dose a wildfire in the bush is an impossibility. It almost turned into steam in the air,” recounted Grant.

Thankfully for Grant and his neighbours like Jason Brown who was also using his hose, the wind changed directions at the perfect time to slow the spread and then Kamloops Fire rescue arrived to scene.

“I thought, ‘Oh boy, I hope the wind changes’ and it did. It shifted a bit and kind of deflected the fire for a while because we have an awful lot of fuel here — or at least we had — that is extremely dry,” said Grant.

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Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc confirmed that there were 23 firefighters on scene battling the fire Wednesday. Those numbers don’t include the additional help provided by the BC Wildfire Service.

“They got positioned well, a second alarm was called early,” said Uzeloc. “We ended up having all on-duty staff responding in a total of 11 vehicles to make sure we had the right resources on scene quickly.”

Kamloops RCMP are investigating the fire. Uzeloc did state that while it’s believed the fire was human caused, he doesn’t think it was deliberately started.

“Our investigators work closely with their team and they looked at the area of origin and looked at some of the evidence around. Now it’s believed that it’s not necessarily intentional but still had the potential to cause harm and that’s why the RCMP are conducting their investigation,” said Uzeloc.

Grant has noticed that a few homeless camps in the area below his home and wasn’t surprised to hear that the fire is believed to be caused by a campfire.

“People need to cook a meal and that sort of thing. It’s to be expected — it’s just that its tinder dry here. We hope people can find places that are safer and less apt to start a fire that’s out of control,” said Grant.

Chief Uzeloc confirmed that KFR has seen an increase in fire calls relating homeless camps around the city.