Over the past week a series of concerns and complaints have been received by the City of Cranbrook and Cranbrook Fire & Emergency Services around hikers finding remnants of campfires in the Community Forest and large numbers of discarded cigarette butts littering the trails.

The city and Cranbrook Fire & Emergency Services are pleading with residents and visitors to the area to please be extremely careful with any campfires and use your head when disposing of any cigarette butts.

Chief Wayne Price with Cranbrook Fire & Emergency Services urges that there should not be a single campfire lit within the Community Forest.

“I explored some of the trails through the Community Forest Friday morning and the dry conditions of the forest floor are consistent with what we normally see in July, not May,” said Price. “One improperly discarded cigarette butt or campfire not properly put out and we could quickly have a wildfire right on our doorstep.”

The news of the horrific devastation through the Fort McMurray area this week with the wildfires has placed many people in a much-heightened sense of awareness and created growing concerns about the wildfire risk locally.

“People forget that the devastating fire in Barriere in 2003 that destroyed over 70 homes and the community’s sawmill was caused by a single improperly disposed cigarette,” Price reflected, adding, “it would be absolutely horrible to see that happen again.”

Lead image: Cranbrook is ringed by forested land, including the Community Forest. Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

City of Cranbrook

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