Spot fires in Genelle out, no one hurt, no damage to buildings
By Kyra Hoggan
Five spot fires in brush in Fairview and Genelle saw fire crews dispatched this afternoon from The Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire Rescue (KBRFR) and the Castlegar Fire Department at about 3 p.m. today (Thursday).
Firefighter Kyle Boutin, speaking on behalf of Fire Chief Terry Martin, said the spot fires were started by sparks thrown by a train, and are now in the clean-up stage, with no one injured and no damage to homes or other structures.
Traffic along Highway 3 was not impacted, except as emergency vehicles drove to the scene.
Castlegar Fire Chief Gerry Rempel was on scene when he told The Source that Castlegar sent one pumper and a tanker, with a second pumper on stand-by, but the fire Castlegar crews were handling in south Fairview was extinguished shortly after 4 p.m.
“No structures were involved, but it was near a residence,” he said. “Our fire was about 100 feet long, so it’s small by Forestry standards, but not tiny, for sure.”
Rempel said he was surprised the fires caught at all.
“Given all the rain, and the brush being as wet as it is, I wouldn’t have thought it would start.”
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