A wildfire burning about 55 kilometres north of Squamish is “pretty close to being put to bed,” according to the BC Wildfire Service as of Wednesday morning.
“They found a few little smokes on their last patrol so they just wanted to do another final patrol and see how things were up that way,” said fire information officer Donna MacPherson.
Gunfire is believed to be the cause of the relatively small wildfire, which authorities now have under control.
“We suspect that it’s firearms,” said MacPherson a day after the fire started up.
“There’s evidence that shooting took place in the area near the location of where the fire was ignited.”
The blaze, about 1.4 hectares, was sparked up on June 17 around the Sqomish Forest Service Road.
MacPherson said authorities believe someone fired a shot at a metal surface or hit a rock, creating a spark that lit up the rest of the area.
She added that it’s not believed exploding targets were used.
Six people were dispatched to the area and a line was drawn around the blaze.
Good progress on stifling the fire was made as of June 18, she said, but at the time crews stopping short of saying the flames were fully under control.
Dry conditions made it easy for a spark to ignite the fire, she said.
In the last few days, dry winds from Kamloops and the Cariboo have blown towards the Pacific. This is a reversal — normally winds head the opposite direction.
“It just sucked all the moisture out of the surface of the soil so quickly,” MacPherson said.
This made the grounds in the Sea to Sky area vulnerable to fire.
***Updated 10 a.m., June 20
