The Sooke Fire Department had their noses to the grindstone after responding to multiple incidents on Canada Day.
The first call was around 7:45 a.m. in the Sun River area for a small brush fire that was the result of discarded smoking material. Firefighters quickly doused the fire.
While preparing for the Canada Day fireworks, another brush fire call came at 2 p.m. from Autumns Way area. This too was the result of discarded cigarette.
Mount said the biggest concern from the fire department is the lack of awareness and carelessness from the smoking community.
“It’s a huge disappointment in this day in age that we see this amount of human caused fires that are preventable,” said Sooke Fire Chief Kenn Mount. “People need to think twice before just tossing that cigarette butt into the bush.
“Especially when it’s so dry and windy out and fire danger ratings are increasing, people can’t discard cigarettes in such a careless fashion.”
Later that evening, the department put on the firework show and had no issues, but received another call around midnight for a kitchen fire incident.
“We enjoyed setting up the fireworks and launched them from the other side this year which was a little different so we hope people enjoyed that.
“We were pressed to the max for two weekends in a row now but we pulled it off.”
He explained that the department worked a 20-hour shift by the end of the day.
“It puts a lot of pressure on our volunteer resources when we are running around all day just because of carelessness.”