Duncan business owner says city no longer responding to small fires – BC [Video]

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.

“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.”

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 …