LETTER – We must assume we have a firebug in town until proven otherwise
Fire on slope at Strathcona Park. (Image: Kamloops Fire Rescue)
Kamloops, we have a firebug in town!
Late afternoon, July 8/25, a brushfire broke out in Strathcona Park, the 3rd such fire in this park in the past 3 months and the 6th brush fire in Kamloops over the past 14 days:
June 24th Valleyview on the river side of the tracks at Highland Road
June 26th Peterson Creek-west
June 27th Strathcona Park
July 5th river bank in front of West Victoria
July 6th Rose Hill, just above the fire department
July 8th Strathcona Park
These 6 along with the Battle Bluffs fire on June 16th, Kenna Cartwright Park on May 24th and the first Strathcona Park fire in April make 9 brush fires in the past 3 months, all afternoon fires. These first 3 may not be related but I have a hard time not believing the last 6 fires in a 14 day span, all in town, also all started in the late afternoon are not related.
It’s naive, no, make that negligent not to assume that we have a fire bug in town, until proven otherwise this must be the working presumption. We shouldn’t be left in the dark, this seems like something the public should be informed of, so where the hell is the leadership?
Nary a word from 7 Victoria Street West on this issue, where is the city’s news release or public address announcement, how about another impromptu March 17 city council press conference, by the way, who’s in charge? I’m serious, who is in charge, surely it’s not the mayor who’s been stripped of all his duties, is it the mayor-of-the-month’s responsibility, whoever that is. Maybe it’s the interim CAO McCorkell or perhaps the on-leave CAO Trawin, how about the Fire Chief, this seems like a chiefy responsibility. Are we once again going to be left leaderless, spinning our wheels like we were in the Juniper Ridge gong show fires 4 years ago? I’m not feeling a whole lot of confidence, are you?
Has the province been informed, BC Wildfire Services and Emergency Management BC, if not why not? We have 2 MLA’s in town, are they going to be missing in action again? How about our MP’s Frank Caputo & what’s his face, the guy from Salmon Arm, shouldn’t they been given a heads up?
All 9 fires have been small and quickly put out with limited help from BC Wildfire Services but since we had a case of spontaneous combustion of one of our fire trucks whilst parked inside a fire station just 2 weeks ago, I’m a little less confident considering the same Sahali station already had one truck out of service leaving us now 2 trucks down. Perhaps in this scenario it would be prudent to give outside resources a heads up as maybe the 10th fire will be a little more wild than brush.
MAC GORDON
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Vote for 🤡 and get the 🎪.
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Wasn’t the red bridge fire an arsonist? There are clear pictures of what looks like a homeless bum leaving the scene of the latest fire. The public has done 95% of the job for the cops and not even a single statement? Zero updates on the red bridge investigation? It makes you wonder what they are doing with all those millions of taxes we pay. Nothing from city council either. They are too busy making exercise videos and posting them on YouTube. Another amazing use of our tax dollars. Thank you to all the shelters in town for attracting and keeping this riff raff around.
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The 8 councillors should ensure oversight to ensure management is “on it”.
Unfortunately the 8 councillors are not interested in that. Given recent back and forth emails I had with them I am sure of that.
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$150 million for a new police HQ so the police can sit around and do nothing? WTF is going on in this city??? Is the chief of police a woke liberal who refuses to enforce the law or take even meagre steps to address this carnival??? I am so angry at how far this city has fallen!!!
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Why anyone thinks this is fine and doesn’t require a seismic shift in how this town bends over backwards to accomodate drug abuse and addiction lifestyles is beyond comprehension.
Why anyone would want to live in a community this bad that acts like a magnet for drug addiction and homeless industrial complex is also beyond comprehension.
This is the manifestation of abject failure at all leadership levels and woke idology.
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not at all sure what you expect anyone to announce other than it’s suspected that there’s a fire bug in town and that the fire department is looking into it or following up
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1- update the public that we have an active arsonist in town
2- forewarn home owners, particularly those around open sage brush areas that they are in greater danger and need to take added precautions
3- alert the general public to be on the lookout for suspicious activity around open sagebrush areas, perhaps open a tip line
4- initiate police, bylaws & fire truck patrols around high danger areas
5- ask for aid from BC Wildfire for additional equipment since we have 2 fire trucks which aren’t operable at the moment, also put them on notice that we are in an extremely high danger period given the unusual circumstances of an active arsonist in a tinder dry region to plan accordingly
6- present an emergency action plan to the citizenry as a means to gain public confidence and reassurance including an assembly or muster point for evacuees if need be
How’s that for starters?
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