Merritt Fire Rescue reminding the community about campfire safety

MERRITT – Fire season is starting to pick up for both the Kamloops Fire Centre and for residents wanting to roast hot dogs.

Even if it seems like a harmless backyard fire, Merritt Fire and Rescue Department are reminding residents of campfire safety.

“You always want to make sure you are aware of the fires, never leaving them unattended, never leave your kids or pets around the fire, and make sure the embers aren’t flying into trees,” said Cody Taylor, Merritt Firefighter. “Always be aware of your surroundings.”

Not everyone can just spark up a marshmallow roast in their yards as there is permitting and specifications involved.

“You need a campfire permit from the City, you can apply for one on the city’s website, and then one of our fire prevention officers will come out and do an inspection on your yard,” added Taylor. “Make sure you pay extra close attention to our campfire burn limits, if there is a no campfire burn in effect you obviously cant have a campfire in your backyard. Just because you apply for a permit doesn’t mean you will necessarily get one, depends on how your house is laid out.”

The Kamloops Fire Centre has already saw a busy start to their season. As of April 19, there are currently nine active wildfires in throughout the zone, including one evacuation alert.

“The fire center for Kamloops, they do monitoring around 3:00 p.m. every day and they will check with the relative humidity, the projected temperatures, and the moisture based fuel loads in the grounds and they will make up their decision whether it’s low, moderate, or high for the day,” said Taylor. “Just because it’s moderate doesn’t mean there is no risk, obviously we have had a couple of inter-face fires this year and we have been pretty busy with that.”