Langford Fire Rescue and the BC Wildfire Service responded to a spot fire on Skirt Mountain this afternoon.
Shortly after 2 p.m., Langford Fire updated that the fire perimeter was 100 per cent contained, and the crews were working together to extinguish hot spots. Fire chief Chris Aubrey said they had the fire contained within 20 minutes of arriving.
Aubrey said they haven’t determined the cause of the fire yet, but found remnants of a campfire in the area.
“We found remnants of a campfire at this location. Due to the size of the brush fire we can't tell if this was an old campfire or a new one,” Aubrey said. “Our investigators will have a look tomorrow and see and determine if this was the cause.”
Dorthe Jakobsen, a fire information officer with Coastal Fire Centre said they had provided a helicopter to help extinguish the flames.
“The small spot fire was reported on Skirt Mountain, it’s in the jurisdiction of the Langford Fire Department,” Jakobsen said. “BC Wildfire Service has sent down a helicopter with an initial attack crew and an officer to assist.”
Aubrey said the fire hadn’t behaved in a way most fires respond.
“It was surprising that it did burn slightly downhill. Most times on a south facing slope like that the fire would burn uphill,” Aubrey said. “The fire actually started at the top of a ridge and as materials started to burn it burned down the rock face and started secondary fires down below. It actually prevented the fire from burning uphill any further.”
Jakobsen said although temperatures are cooling, people should bear in mind the extreme fire danger that covers most of Vancouver Island.
“We continue to ask people to be diligent out there even though temperatures may be cooler today,” Jakobsen said. “We continue to ask people to please be careful, respect the prohibitions, and report anything they see.”
Aubrey said they believe the public was more compliant with the fire ban when it was first implemented.
“We had a fire on Monday night and we had some instances on the weekend where it was just carelessness,” Aubrey said. “On the weekend we found a campfire in the woods and there was fireworks.
“The one on Monday also looked like it may have been someone in the woods smoking.”
If you see a fire, report it by phoning 1-800-663-5555 or texting *5555 on a cellphone.