North Bay's Deputy Fire Chief says the Fire Department has been very busy this summer putting out illegal outdoor fires in the area, many of which come from homeless encampments.
The North Bay Fire Department says from a time frame from late June 18 to July 23, North Bay crews went to 19 calls that Deputy Chief Greg Saundrers says "were the result of unhoused persons burning contrary to the City By-Law and these fires were extinguished by our firefighters."
During that time, the City of North Bay alerted outdoor fire calls 39 times.
Saunders broke down all those calls for BayToday.ca:
- 7 were calls that we investigated and were determined to be public complaints about people that had valid burning permits and were following the rules for outdoor burning
- 2 were determined to be arson in which outdoor porta potties were deliberately lit on fire
- 7 were calls that were investigated but no fire was located
- 5 were calls that were determined to be illegal burning (without a valid permit) where the fires were extinguished by our firefighters. Two of these calls resulted in charges.
- 19 of these calls were the result of unhoused persons burning contrary to the City By-Law. These fires were extinguished by our firefighters.
Saunders wants to see those numbers, especially those relating to unhoused or homeless people, to go down.
"Yes, 19 in a month is a significant number of calls, and extrapolated over a year, likely means over 200 in a year," he told BayToday.ca.
"Most of these fires are extinguished without incident, but a quick internet search will demonstrate that there have been a number of fire fatalities in homeless encampments throughout Canada.
Saunders says any time there is an illegal fire, there is a risk to property, the environment, and, unfortunately, to human lives.