Duncan business owner says city no longer responding to small fires

A Duncan, B.C., business owner says he and colleagues are worried about the potential for a dangerous fire to get out of hand, under a new municipal policy that’s curtailed firefighter responses.

Will Arnold owns Experience Cycling on the Trans Canada Highway near Alexander Street.

He told Global News he and other business owners are frequently forced to extinguish warming fires lit by unhoused people in the area.

1:38 Suspicious fire destroys Duncan thrift store

“I have put out fires on unhoused (people) who have ingested their drug of choice and then all of a sudden have fallen asleep and fallen in the fire, and their pants and shirts and everything have caught on fire,” he said.

“So it’s a really big concern.”

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More concerning, he said, is a change in municipal policy that’s directed the local fire department not to respond to small warming fires.

He’s concerned that one of those small fires will get out of hand and spread.

“We are seeing that the fires are getting bigger, they are getting closer to our buildings, and as business owners, we are very concerned,” he said.

“These fires can start off as something small and then go up a wall, and next thing you know, we are dealing with a building.”

0:52 Multiple people injured in Duncan apartment building fire

Duncan’s mayor and council made the policy change in September, saying the fire department was dealing with hundreds of nuisance calls and simply could not keep up.

“We are not talking about calls for structures here. What we are talking about calls for what have been described to me as very small fires that are not up against a building, that are not under awnings,” Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples said.

“We do not have a 24/7 fire department, we have an on-call fire department, and we do not want to burn out our FD members… We have been working ever since then to try to implement something that is a bit different, where bylaw (officers) and security can be called out instead.”

The RCMP confirmed to Global News that its officers are often being deployed to assist with fire calls, either asking the homeless to extinguish the flames or helping businesses deal with the fires themselves.

Arnold, meanwhile, says he doesn’t believe that strategy is working.

He said he fears it’s only a matter of time before there is a more serious fire.

“I’m concerned that I don’t have any fire protection,” he said. “Our insurance keeps climbing and the cost of doing business is climbing.”