Chilliwack River Valley Fire Dept. asks area residents not to put out wildland fires due to safety risks
CHILLIWACK — Following two fires in the Chilliwack River Valley this past week in which area residents were first on scene and lent a hand to stop these two wildfires from spreading, the Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department has asked residents not to put themselves in harm’s way.
Fires broke out Wednesday morning (July 17) and Saturday afternoon (July 20) in the Chilliwack River Valley. In the first incident, Chilliwack River Valley resident Derrick Kramer says he and another neighbour, Brian Smith, extinguished a potential forest fire near Riverside Campground. He stopped to check on a homeless camp near Riverside and noticed that someone had started a trailer fire. He grabbed firefighting equipment and sprayed down the smoldering fire as did Smith.
In the second incident on Saturday, July 20, someone traveling up Chilliwack Lake Road noticed a fire just east of Ford Mountain Correctional Centre, close to the 57600 block of Chilliwack Lake Road. According to Derrick Kramer, the alert bystander who noticed the fire drove to Post Creek, contacted a resident there and asked them to report the fire, as there is no cell phone reception around the 57600 block of Chilliwack Lake Road. At least two people subsequently hopped in their vehicles with fire extinguishers and a shovel and worked to suppress the fire. Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department firefighters were on scene shortly thereafter.