A brush fire caused by youths setting off fireworks at a popular park in Nanaimo, B.C., the day the ban took effect has the city’s mayor on edge about the province’s vulnerability to wildfires as the season heats up.

Leonard Krog said Saturday that a group of young people gathered at Piper’s Lagoon Park caused the blaze, which he said should be a “wake-up call” to citizens to pay attention to fire bans. And although his city has been spared so far, unlike communities in the B.C. interior, he says “our turn will no doubt come.”

Krog said “some idiots” set off fireworks in the park and the brush fire damaged undergrowth in a “very sensitive ecological area.”

He said setting off fireworks, which can’t be bought without a license in Nanaimo, on the day the provincial fire ban came into effect “is the height of stupidity and arrogance.”

“I am frankly, as mayor, disgusted that anybody of any age would think it appropriate, for whatever reason, to be that stupid in the middle of a hot, dry summer,” he said.

Krog said Piper’s Lagoon Park is a popular area and visiting the site of the blaze Saturday morning was “very upsetting.”

“These bans and regulations aren’t in place just because we love banning and regulating things. They’re in place to protect public assets and unique public assets,” he said.

“This may be the start of, you know, two or three months of hot, dry weather, and the fire at Piper’s points out how quickly serious consequences can flow from a few acts of stupidity.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2024