Lytton mayor, residents question TSB fire investigation

LYTTON, B.C. — The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada says there’s no evidence of a link between train activity and the Lytton wildfire on June 30th — and the mayor of Lytton says the people of the village feel pushed aside.

“It left a lot of unanswered questions as to why locals were not given a chance to put in their knowledge on the situation,” Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman told CFJC Today Friday (Oct. 15).

Polderman also says he questions the thoroughness of the report, stating that the TSB didn’t enter Lytton to investigate until about nine days after the fire — and until then, the site was left unsecured.

“There’s a lot of local people who feel the trains are responsible. That being said, there has to be clear evidence one way or another and I’m waiting for that evidence to be brought forward,” Polderman explained.

The Transportation Safety Board told CFJC News that the organization didn’t get the call from the RCMP or the B.C. Wildfire Service until July 4th, 2021 and wasn’t sent in to investigate until the 9th.

Because they were sent in almost 10 days after the fire, the lead investigator says it made more sense to observe the witness statements residents made to the RCMP.

“The interviews that were conducted by the RCMP in the days following were probably going to be more valuable to us than to try and go out and get somebody to talk about it after they’ve had two weeks to think about what happened, after they’ve been evacuated from their homes,” said James Carmichael, regional senior investigator for the TSB.

“We just thought they would be more accurate interviews,” he continued.

Mayor Polderman says he’s also concerned that the TSB investigators didn’t have knowledge or experience with wildfires.

“The B.C. Wildfire Service has an origin investigator doing that part. There didn’t seem to be any reason for us — and we can contract people and do things like that if required — but we felt that, ‘Okay, B.C. Wildfire Services was already doing that,’” Carmichael explained.

The mayor says he’s looking forward to hearing the B.C. Wildfire Service and the RCMP’s findings from their investigations.

“This is only one of three investigations and we just need to wait to hear what the experts have to say,” said Polderman.

A group of Lytton residents will be gathering at the gas station on the Lytton First Nation on Sunday (Oct. 17) to express their dissatisfaction over the TSB’s report.

The organizers were not available to comment on the TSB’s report by our deadline.